From a certain angle the net then seems to be philosophy without history as each philosophy-database weaves its web side by side with other philosophy-databases. A series of engines anticipating an infinite number of behaviors (some more successfully than others, although the definition of success remains elusive). A generative grammar? Perhaps. Perhaps the web, then, is not just the history of philosophy stripped of history but is the very history of language happening before our eyes: speakers creating the conditions of their speaking in the very act of speaking, a mobius creation.
Is there a point to this? Yes: from what perspective do we experience the web? From what perspective do we begin to account for the web? From that of the user? The net artist -- whoever that may be? The designer? The data modeler? The programmer? From all at once? From what perspective do we think language? That of the creator, the writer, the listener? That of the listener? What is to listen? Can the listener in fact be the speaker, the creator? Can the web surfer -- not the artist, not the programmer, not the designer -- be the real artist, a bricoleur on the fly, bookmarking here, jerking off there, reading a tad, chatting, moving on, shutting down?
– Daniel Coffeen