“Information wants to be free” was the famous maxim of the early days of the web, back in the Nineties. It is an actual quote, by Silicon Valley visionary and entrepreneur Stewart Brand, first articulated at a hacker conference in the Eighties (or so the story goes, Brand himself says he really doesn’t remember). Except it’s just half a quote, the full aphorism is “Information Wants To Be Free. Information also wants to be expensive. …That tension will not go away” In its complete form, it is so much more insightful. Too bad the Nineties forgot the second half of the wisdom, the Internet would have been a completely different place. Perhaps it is not too late to embrace the entire line?
