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In Neal Stephenson’s latest novel, “Fall; or Dodge in Hell”[0] the Internet degenerates to such an extent that even the least savvy user perceives online material via an “editor”, which is an entity (human or machine) tasked with presenting information to the client in a way that the client would find acceptable. Unsaid goes the implicit bias that would have to govern work products of such editors, which - I suppose - is part of the value prop. You choose the editor to whose methodology you subscribe.

[0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall;_or,_Dodge_in_Hell



> an “editor”, which is an entity (human or machine) tasked with presenting information to the client in a way that the client would find acceptable.

We usually call this sort of thing a "user agent" FWIW. Your usual web browser is one kind of user agent, but there could be others.


No, in the book it’s more like a filtered content stream, only it’s not just the stream that is filtered but also all search results and any other means of discovering internet content.




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