Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for September 09, 2018

Um, you know this comic is on the internet, right??

You think it is bad now – just wait till Things start getting internetty!

Well,it wouldn’t kill it entirely. Most of Wikipedia would still be there, although possibly not pages devoted to each and every individual episode of The Simpsons. DigiKey and Alibris.com are darned useful, if you need electronic parts and used books, respectively. Certainly nothing that I have ever created would survive…

All that will be left would be just cat videos.

Since idiocy is relative, does it mean that the app would only filter things dumber than yourself? If so, most people are going to be disappointed.

It would have to be an A.I. of such fidelity and perspicacity as to be unheard of at this time. Also the use of such terms as “idiocy” are gross exaggerations of what the word originally meant. So the parameters will have to be very fine too. It sounds nice but it is too simplistic for use other than as a thoughtful criticism of the current Internet.What does freedom buy you? Everything good, bad, genius and idiotic. You have to use your brain as the filter for what you want. Nothing less will do.

The inconsistencies in the thinking of one typical individual, when multiplied by the numbers of people who use the internet, would boggle the mind of the most thoughtful person – or alien – who ever lived. That specimen would very likely self commit to a facility in a far country/galaxy. A computer, being purely pragmatic, would simply blow up.

It would be sufficient to have a labeling-app for internet content (scientific, religious, silly, tinfoilhat-y,…). Then one can decide whether to waste time on that or not.

I’ve been using the internet for almost 30 years. There were, and still are, many good things on it. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Just deal with the idiots.

I guess you’d have to define what you mean by ‘idiotic nonsense’ to make the app work.

Counterargument: Youtube: Carnaval Carnival Rio de Janeiro

The Internet: Not just for porn anymore…

Let’s see…we’re reading this how? And Wiley makes his money from what? Can we spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E? Hey, maybe we can.

Just think, if all the idiocy were stopped all the politicians and conspiracy theorists would have to go back to soap boxes on street corners.

At least we’d have to go back to actual paper newspapers, which would solve my problem of running out of mulch.

Since I read this strip on the web, there might be a slight flaw to Wiley’s plan.

“There’s nothing on it worthwhile, and we’re not going to watch it in this household, and I don’t want it in your intellectual diet.”

Philo Farnsworth, inventor of television

Can I get the version with the Trump filter?

“Use your brain…” That’s what he did. Just eveloped a little extension of it to do the heavy lifting on the filtering.

Back when it was early on and grad students and others were connecting the various early nets together it was possible to select one’s preferred topics, and if there were not too many of them, to actually read everything that people posted on those topics on a given day (sometimes week). Of course, then only certain university departments, major research labs, and the military had access, so far fewer people posting… From back then I actually recall the first troll I knew of, and for a long time the only one I encountered at all. He was a jerk who posted very-over-the-top-gory “recipes” to one of the pet lists I was on (using the type of animal we were discussing as the food source).

If a person Googles themself and nothing shows up in the results, do they really exist?

Okay, I just asked someone who knows: the first WWW (raw text) application was in 1990 if I heard right, the mosaic browser that more convinced people came out in 1993, and it began taking off much more in the general public in the later half of the 1990s. Before the internet, of course, there were the linked networks like Arpanet, Theorynet, etc. which went to only certain locations.

At the moment, they realize that they’re quite h-APP-ly content about how quiet and peaceful the public park is this morning..

This idea would ruin today’s “Argyle Sweater”.

ummm….the problem with “just deal with the idiots” is who decides which critter is an “idiot” and what “brainiac” is a “sage?”…..more than a few persons/commentators know i am an “idiot”(he77 even sometimes i think i am idiot)…..my mom thinks i am very sage like for my age and so does my dog….so does my neighbor across the street…

I’d liked to point out that I wouldn’t have been able to see your cartoon today if it were not for the internet since my local newspaper doesn’t include Non Sequitur in their Sunday edition.

But…But…what will I do with the rest of my waking hours.

And You Tube would have only One Video left.

A song about they day Cats grew thumbs and took the Guns out of the safe …

Having “face to face” conversations with relatives half-way around the world, is kinda’ neat.

Remember when they tried calling it ""The Information Superhighway"?

I’m surprised that it’s not Danae’s time traveling inventor boyfriend that came up with this app. Then again, the younger generation would not want to shut down the internet!