The metaphor of the computer as a "bicycle for the mind," popularized by Steve Jobs, is a powerful one. It evokes a sense of personal empowerment, of leveraging technology to amplify human intellect and creativity. The bicycle is a tool for individual journeys, for exploring at a human pace.
The "information super-highway," on the other hand, is a metaphor of a different scale entirely. It speaks to a massive, impersonal infrastructure, designed for high-speed, high-volume data transmission. It is a system of commerce and mass communication, not of personal exploration.
The conflict between these two metaphors, as highlighted by @spavel.bsky.social, is the conflict between the personal and the public, the individual and the collective. We have taken our bicycles for the mind and attempted to ride them on a super-highway. The result is a chaotic, overwhelming, and often dangerous experience. The human-scale tool is lost in the noise of the massive infrastructure.
This is the core of the tension we experience with modern computing. We have tools that are capable of incredible feats of personal expression and discovery, but we are forced to use them in an environment that is hostile to both. The information super-highway is not a place for a leisurely bike ride. It is a place for trucks and tankers, for the movement of capital and the broadcasting of mass media.
The challenge for the next generation of computing is to build new roads, new paths for our bicycles of the mind. We need to create spaces where individual exploration and creativity can flourish, where the human scale is not just tolerated, but celebrated. We need to build a network of bike paths, not just a super-highway.