How do i love amazon.com? let me count the ways . . .

why do i love amazon.com so much? the other night i had some (rare) time off, and actually got a little bored. tv didn’t seem interesting, and my books are all still packed away from the recent move. i wanted something to quickly get me doing things i was interested in.

amazon to the rescue–they now know me so well that it’s become FUN to browse their site and have them hawk their wares to me. howard rheingold’s new book, smart mobs, talks about the erosion of personal privacy relating to this. we always assumed people held their personal information tightly enough that no amount of coercing would make us release it, i.e. Benjamin Franklin’s quote, “they that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” but instead, we’ve found that people are more than willing to spill all, just for a little added convenience.

i don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing–it points toward the possibility of communities coming together based on shared interests and goals. it also opens up a number of negative possibilities for those inclined toward evil. but as paul berg, a nobel prize laureate and stanford professor, said, “you cannot stop science because of the POSSIBILITY that someone might use your knowledge for evil”. giving in to that idea means giving up on life and any further progress . . .