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In Flux is a hybrid work-part memoir, part speculative essay-that chronicles Richard Seltzer's personal journey through the early days of the internet, especially his time at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and his experience promoting AltaVista, the pioneering search engine. Co-authored with his son Tim Seltzer, the book traces technological change across decades, connecting personal anecdotes to broader cultural, economic, and ethical shifts.
The book is structured in three major parts:
DEC, the Web, and AltaVista - An insider's retrospective on how the early internet was shaped by open access, technological idealism, and the cultural environment of DEC. Seltzer recounts his involvement in internet evangelism and the design philosophy of AltaVista, emphasizing principles like equality of access, textual search indexing, and decentralized community-building.
Empowerment and Bias - A reflective section that blends sociopolitical commentary and personal narrative. It critiques the unintended consequences of early internet optimism, maps out the tensions between grassroots empowerment and emergent monopolies, and questions how individual actions shape or distort history.
Ebooks, Copyright, and AI - A forward-looking and sometimes cautionary exploration of digital publishing, intellectual property, and the rising influence of AI. It offers critiques of corporate control over content and user data, proposing more equitable and decentralized alternatives.
Throughout, the book weaves themes of idealism, disillusionment, and cautious hope, arguing that technological shifts present both opportunity and risk, and that ordinary people can nudge the future this way or that.
