What if the internet
made us better?
iWire is a working theory of what online life could become — a parallel network shaped by human goodwill instead of attention-hacking incentives. Not a frictionless utopia, but a real place with real tradeoffs that reliably makes people wiser, kinder, and more capable together.
The internet we lost — and could rebuild
The early web had a genuine quality: it was weird, slow, and human. Portal sites like Yahoo circa 1998 weren’t algorithmically optimized — they were curated by people who thought about what was worth finding. That era’s limitation wasn’t the idea, it was the technology.
Today’s internet solves the technology problem but creates a far worse one: an attention economy that systematically rewards outrage, addiction, and manipulation. The platforms that won did so not because they were the best ideas, but because they were the most extractive.
iWire asks: what if we kept the technological gains but changed the incentive structure entirely? Not by ignoring economics, but by building around a different set of metrics — comprehension instead of clicks, connection depth instead of engagement time, capability gained instead of content consumed.
This means accepting some uncomfortable tradeoffs. An internet optimized for human flourishing will be less sticky, less viral, and slower to grow. It will lose to attention-maximizing competitors in raw engagement metrics. The bet is that it wins on a different axis entirely — one where the people using it demonstrably lead better lives.
Six platforms for a humane internet
Each platform on iWire serves a core human need that the current internet meets badly. They’re designed to interoperate but governed independently, preventing any single platform from accumulating enough power to warp the others.
Three branches, constant tension
iWire’s governance borrows from constitutional democracies rather than corporate boards. Three branches check each other’s power, and no single entity can change fundamental rules unilaterally.
The culture that has to emerge
Technology alone doesn’t create healthy communities — norms do. iWire encodes certain norms into the platform architecture (making them the path of least resistance) while leaving others to emerge organically. The key insight: you can’t legislate kindness, but you can make cruelty inconvenient.
What gets amplified changes everything
The current internet’s algorithms optimize for one thing: time on site. iWire’s algorithms optimize for a basket of human outcomes, measured longitudinally. This is harder, slower, and less profitable — but it’s the entire point.
The Comprehension Algorithm. Rather than showing you what keeps you scrolling, iWire’s content ranking asks: did the reader understand this? Follow-up quizzes (optional, ungraded) and dwell-time patterns distinguish between “stared at in rage” and “read carefully and learned.” Content that produces genuine understanding rises. Content that produces confusion or outrage sinks.
The Bridge Algorithm. Instead of clustering people into echo chambers, iWire identifies “bridge” content — material that people across ideological divides both find valuable. This isn’t mushy centrism; it’s finding the specific framings that help people genuinely understand each other’s reasoning.
The Diminishing Returns Signal. After a certain point, more time on the platform stops helping and starts hurting. iWire tracks this inflection point per user and gently nudges toward exit: “You’ve caught up on everything important. See you tomorrow.” The platform succeeds when you leave satisfied, not when you stay forever.
Return to the portal — done right
In 1998, you opened your browser and saw a start page. It wasn’t great — cluttered, slow, full of banner ads. But the core idea was sound: one calm place that organizes the internet for you, instead of the internet organizing you. iWire’s start page is that idea, rebuilt with everything we’ve learned since.
No infinite scroll. No notification badges screaming for attention. Just: the time, the weather, your messages, the news that matters, and a search bar that respects your query instead of selling your intent to advertisers. The best start page the internet has ever had.
What you give up to get this
Any honest theory of a better internet has to reckon with what it costs. iWire isn’t free, isn’t for everyone, and isn’t trying to replace the existing internet. Here’s what’s hard:
