World Wide Web: Why it’s the best invention in decades

Good morning, dear reader,

sometimes the good and the bad are very close together. Just like with the medium that has become an integral part of our lives. Get in touch with anyone you want around the world, tap into endless knowledge, watch and listen, play and work, navigate and participate: everything is possible within seconds and around the clock thanks to this miracle.

But there are also the abysses: brutal violence, hate speech and criminal rip-offs, total surveillance by secret services and dictatorships, and the suspicion that the next quantum leap in technology could fundamentally call our intellectual achievements into question. What if at some point machine intelligence is not only artificial, but also smarter and more creative in every respect than the brain of Homo sapiens?

Chat bots like ChatGPT are the third step in a revolution that started 30 years ago. The second step was the triumph of Smartphones from 2007. The first step is 30 years old this Sunday: On April 30, 1993, the heads of the European nuclear research center CERN gave the World Wide Web free for general use. This groundbreaking medium was invented by the Briton Tim Berners-Lee. A man who thought as quickly as he spoke. Who was bubbling with ideas. And therefore needed an ordering structure for his impetuous upper room.

So he made a plan: In order to sort his train of thought (and probably also to tame the notorious information chaos at CERN), the 37-year-old designed the basics of a digital information network in which all content is prepared as universally valid hypertext and networked with clickable links. Pretty crazy. At first, not even his scientific colleagues understood what the quick thinker had created with it: nothing less than them Interface of modern human communication.

But the penny soon dropped. And then things happened in quick succession: Shortly thereafter, the American student designed Marc Andreessen based on the WWW the first web browser. Then came Microsoft founders Bill Gates around the corner and, with its Internet Explorer, delivered the application for the masses for the revolutionary medium.

The rest is history. Three decades later, the world’s most valuable companies are raking in their billions thanks to the Internet. All the people sitting next to me on the train stare into their cell phones or type into their laptops as I write this text. Up to twelve percent of the global power requirement flows into digital devices, and the trend is rising. However, Ukrainian soldiers are also coordinating their defensive battles against Putin’s troops with satellite-supported communication on their smartphones. And thousands of orders are placed in online shops every second – while many shops in city centers have to close for lack of customers.

If you ask ChatGPT the question “What is the best thing about the Internet?”, you will get this answer: “The best thing about the Internet is that it makes available an incredible amount of knowledge and information from all walks of life. With just a few clicks, you can access a wealth of knowledge, from academic research papers to news and information to practical guides and tutorials. The internet also offers a multitude of opportunities to socially interact and exchange ideas and opinions with people around the world.It has transformed the way we communicate, shop, work, learn and entertain, and it has transformed us given an unprecedented freedom to form our own opinions and make our own decisions.” A person could hardly describe the achievements of the WWW more aptly.

On the other hand, if you ask ChatGPT “What’s the worst thing about the Internet?”, the machine first apologizes: As an artificial intelligence, it has “no opinion or emotions of its own”. But then she mentions cyberbullying, the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories, online addiction, identity theft and data abuse. Anyway.

The pioneer Berners-Lee, fortunately a flesh-and-blood person, is now also worried: On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of his invention, he warns against data misuse, disinformation, hate speech and censorship on the WWW. Even the most sophisticated machine cannot take away the most important thing from us: the daily decision to use technology responsibly.

Berlin actually needs a strong state government that can solve all of the capital’s problems: the lack of housing, the bad traffic, the sluggish administration, a lack of teachers and criminal clans. Wanted that and more Kai Wegner tackle as head of a coalition of CDU and SPD. To do this, however, he needs authority and the united support of both governing parties.

Wegner has only had both to a limited extent since yesterday afternoon: The start of his government turned into a disgrace. only in third ballot He achieved the necessary majority of votes in the House of Representatives to become Governing Mayor. Apparently, several SPD people refused to follow him, but he apparently got votes from the AfD. The notorious opinion makers promptly got excited on Twitter and thought the end of the West was near. It’s not that bad, and neither is the comparison with the scandalous election of the FDP short-term prime minister Thomas Kemmerich using AfD votes in Thuringia is lagging. Wegner from Berlin won the state elections with his CDU and is the leader of the strongest parliamentary group.

The trail of the Nord Stream attack to Moscow is confirmed: In March, t-online reported exclusively on a secret Russian ship convoy that headed for the later crime scenes days before the explosions. Among them were special ships with equipment particularly suitable for a possible sabotage action.

Since then a lot has happened: Danish colleagues have received confirmation from the Danish Ministry of Defence. More than a hundred photos of the ships were taken. And now the newspaper “Dagbladet Information” reports: 26 of the pictures actually show the most important ship for the alleged operation – the “SS-750”, equipped with a mini submarine. Here our researcher Jonas Mueller-Töwe explains the latest development. And here you can read the entire t-online research.

The year 1923 was a turning point in Germany: The country was rocked by a brutal cascade of crises before the lights went out ten years later. The exhibition “1923: Faces of a Time” Starting today, the Hamburger Kunsthalle is showing paintings, sculptures and drawings from the turbulent times. Certainly worth a trip.