Summary
The Hive Mind is asynchronous. You don't have to be in the same place or even in the same time to be able to converse.
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I was chatting with Erik Thauvin and he asked me if I used IRC. However, I was a bit embarassed to admit, I knew what the acronyms stood for, however I had never actually used it. I heard it about it back in graduate school when a couple of other students wanted to implement their own version. However, I had also had the impression that it was a big time sink.
IRC is like a chat room but with more listeners at a given time. Not everyone really speaks, in fact the vast majority are lurkers. This got me thinking of the inefficiency of it all. See with blogging I've been averaging 534 unique visitors a day, however if I wanted the same kind of audience for IRC, I would have to be online 24 hours a day. Now, Erik, who's rumored to require only 3 to 4 hours of sleep a day, can do that, however I need my daily dose of 8 hours of sleep.
The Hive Mind is asynchronous. You don't have to be in the same place or even in the same time to be able to converse. It's also the preferred mechanism for software integration. I've blogged about this before, and its the basis of my claim that web services as it's currently envisioned is a flawed concept.
So, if you're a frequent reader, please make your thoughts known. The Hive Mind will be better as a result.
<p>Its interesting to find you here. I'm a physics type also.</p> <p> I haven't really done much on IRC chat, either. I tried out the AOL instant messanger thing, but everyone I know, which is mainly family, never log on to it anymore.I tried some of the chat sites at yahoo with the yahoo messenger and gave up on it all together when starnge emails with virii and firewall pings started coming in droves.</p> <p>I have concluded that instant messaging must primarily be for kids or at least the younger set. The stuff on the yahoo was nothing but vulgar irate trash.</p>
Its interesting to find you here. I'm a physics type also.
I haven't really done much on IRC chat, either. I tried out the AOL instant messanger thing, but everyone I know, which is mainly family, never log on to it anymore.I tried some of the chat sites at yahoo with the yahoo messenger and gave up on it all together when starnge emails with virii and firewall pings started coming in droves.
<p>I have concluded that instant messaging must primarily be for kids or at least the younger set. The stuff on the yahoo was nothing but vulgar irate trash.
Yeah, It's just surprising what 5 semesters of classical mechanics, 5 semesters of electrodynamics and 4 semesters of quantum mechanics can do to your brain!
Now I spend most of my time looking for the "grand unified theory", however this time it's in a field other than physics! Want to hear my "theory of everything" as applied to software?
Carlos, blog away. I think both your Theory of Everything and Grand Unified Theory would make excellent new blog topics. This is great!! Theoretical Physics!!!! Lets do it. Lets make it asynchronous as possible. No symmetry violations. Let your electrons migrate to the surface of your brain in accordance with Gauss's Law and spin those neural fibers into abstract theoretical bloghyperspace tensor field formulations.
I agree with your observation on blogging. The issue of real-time vs time-delayed interactivity has been around for a while, though.
As with you, I don't (usually) enjoy real-time very much. Though I admit to being on AIM and ICQ. I know people writers who have long conversations on one of these IM systems to plot out stories. The instant interactivity is exactly the environment they need to incubate their creations.
But for more general ideas with a larger audience, a forum format (such as message boards or blogs) is a better medium.
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