I like this essay a lot. I find the early conception of the internet as an equal utopia really fascinating. As Abbe points out, having an internet-based community is inherently elitist—you must have access to a computer and the internet, and you must be able to write and read in whatever language is used by the majority. Even still, viewing such a space as equal and void of gender, age, race, or class is also dystopic. Biases that exist in the real world still apply to a virtual one, and pretending otherwise others marginalized groups.
The discussion of the cloud was also interesting. I’ll admit that I still have to remind myself that the cloud isn’t some magical place that holds all our data, it’s massive data centers that eat up resources. The terminology of a ‘Cloud’ is incredibly fascinating from a marketing perspective because it makes it so easy to dismiss how material the cloud is. Of course it’s not real—it’s a cloud! It exists in the sky! Or if it is real, then it’s light and airy and fluffy, and it’s not massive supervillain bases.