Analysis Of Six Ways The Internet Will Save Civilization By David Eagleman

David Eagleman, a neuroscientist and best-selling author, wrote an article for the famous magazine publication Wired titled, “Six Ways the Internet will Save Civilization”. As the title suggests, Eagleman lists and details examples of how the internet can stop or prevent societies from collapsing. With this piece, he hopes to inform the reader of how possible scenarios could play out with the intervention of the internet that could end in favor of humanity. Though he tries to support his claims on how he believes the internet can prevent an apocalyptic event, he fails to provide them in a convincing manner and introduces logical problems that under look and misestimate possible future epidemics. In Eagleman’s article, he argues the internet has reduced the chance of civil destruction, and uses six points to exemplify how. His piece, one made for profit, is probably made to get the attention of the most people overall rather than the most analytical, so his ideas are not meant to be taken completely seriously. The six talking points provide a scenario in which humanity could cease to exist, and how the internet would hinder its development. The examples he gives consist of: a virus outbreak that can be contained through …show more content…
While describing how free speech would flourish under tyrannical governments on the internet, he does not admit the obvious possibility that what may seem like free speech is just an illusion. Texts could be altered or removed altogether unbeknownst to the public. In his disease argument, he claims “we can fluidly shift into a self-quarantined society in which microbes fail due to host scarcity” (Eagleman). With this sentence, he suggests that the complete societal suspension would be an easy thing to accomplish. Based on these observations, it is easily agreeable that Eagleman underestimates the variables and complications that a doomsday would