Stupid is, stupid does

There is an interesting article on Wired News that suggests maybe some people really are just too stupid to surf. These are not the people who simply fail to get all the latest updates, or mis-configure their router or make some other forgiveable mistake. No, they are the people who download stuff anti-virus software and never bother to install it, buy Kazaa for $29.95 and believe it gives them free music for life, see warnings but never read them, open unknown attachments and get viruses over and over and over, keep forwarding every chain letter or urban legend to all their other clueless friends, and hand over their email address and other personal info to every dumb ass web site that asks for it.

The article suggests there should be a license to surf but I think that will never work. On the face of it we have licenses for some things, like driving, or practicing some life and death professions. But lets face it, society gives people the right to own guns, raise kids, and many other potentially lethal things without any licenses. So why would it ever work for surfing? Critical thinking isn't something you can learn overnight and test for just like that. If it was the world would, or could, be a much better place. We could use that test before letting people on the roads, in planes, in front of a voting machine, in charge of a computer (for whatever purpose). However it turns out that some people really are just too stupid to surf or own and operate any contemporary surfing equipment that is more complicated than a TV with a two button remote.

So here's my shooting from the hip idea... If porn sites get a .xxx domain, kids get .kids.us domain then what about a .stupid, .dummy (or the less inflamatory .simple or .safe) domain extensions for all these hapless surfers. It could be full of harmless websites with no plugins, no Active-X, no VB scripts, no spam, no-porn, no-downloadable anything and supporting only one open port (80), and only licensed and regulated business sites aimed at the intellectually challenged surfers. On second thoughts, I think this sounds just like TV which is maybe exactly why AOL and others are trying so hard to make web surfing an experience so wonderfully controlled and utterly devoid of any requirement of a critical mind capable of independent thought - just like TV!