The End of the Web, Search, and Computer as We Know It

by David Gerlenter, Wired.com

In the 1990s, Yale University professor David Gelernter predicted a “lifestream” phenomenon on the Internet, which has manifested itself in today’s RSS feeds, blogs, Facebook posts, and Twitter feeds.

Gelernter recently predicted the end of current Web and search technology as the focus shifts from a space-based Web to a time-based “worldstream.”

Instead of doing an endless series of separate searches, we tune the knobs on our stream-browser to continuously feed us just the information we need.

“By adding together every timestream on the net–including the private lifestreams that are just beginning to emerge–into a single flood of data, we get the worldstream: a way to picture the cybersphere as a whole,” Gelernter says. Since millions of separate lifestreams will exist in the future cybersphere, basic software will become the stream browser, which will be similar to today’s browsers, but designed to add, subtract, and navigate streams, according to Gelernter. He says the main function of the stream browser will be to help users tune into information.

Gelernter notes the millions of Web streams will need to “share the same interface for the stream browser to draw on.”  Article