M2CW,

I read a couple of books this summer that told the story about the birth of the internet. Both of them described it as a bulletin board styled system which originally hooked up computer science departments at colleges for professors to share information about defense projects they were working on.

They both told stories of enormous ego battles that broke out and flame wars which make these threads look small. These same professors who were flaming each other were the guys who were "inventing" what we now use as the internet. Many of the technological advances that they pioneered were to make it a more effective medium for argument/analysis.

The conclusion that the authors drew was that this medium breeds this sort of exchange... That when you combine the public nature of a message board with a group of subject matter experts, you will get, well, debates, like this.

Once I bought into this theory, it helped me deal with the occasional brush fires that break out here. If the hyposthesis is true, then it proves that we are all approaching "expert-edness." And, since I buy the "it's inevitable" portion as well, I don't have a nagging desire to change other's behavior.

As for the technology here being driven by these debates, well, I guess a sysop would be in a better position than I to answer that. I know that the twit filter came from these types of arguments. I'm not sure what else.

Oh, the books were Being Digital, Negreponte and The Age of Spritual Machines, by Kurzweil.

Marty