Digital Maoism

Jaron Lanier writes:

My Wikipedia entry identifies me (at least this week) as a film director. It is true I made one experimental short film about a decade and a half ago. The concept was awful: I tried to imagine what Maya Deren would have done with morphing. It was shown once at a film festival and was never distributed and I would be most comfortable if no one ever sees it again.

In the real world it is easy to not direct films. I have attempted to retire from directing films in the alternative universe that is the Wikipedia a number of times, but somebody always overrules me. Every time my Wikipedia entry is corrected, within a day I’m turned into a film director again. I can think of no more suitable punishment than making these determined Wikipedia goblins actually watch my one small old movie.

At least what Lanier is going through with Wikipedia is better than the off-and-on update that Beach Boy Mike Love’s Wiki page seems to be undergoing at the moment. (After writing this post, I’ve checked Love’s Wikipedia profile a few times this week. The A-word seems to appear and disappear quite frequently.)

(Via Charles Johnson, who spots further examples of what Lanier calls “Digital Maoism”.)