Proust’s masterwork describing France’s high society of over 100 years ago still holds the world’s record for the longest novel. It explores, among many other topics, the concept of involuntary memory, those little sparks of remembrance that trigger pathways, rabbit holes, and deviations. Unbeknownst to many, the web of 10 years ago had a Proustian aspect when developers created the ‘cozy web’, a space filled with web rings, virtual pets, cozy corners, silly spaces, useless deviations, endless threads, and all the ‘mind pops’ available to trigger human creativity.
In this talk, let’s walk through some of the elements of the cozy web and think about how far we have come from this moment, especially with the advent of generative AI and the predominance of the chat interface. As we may be heading to the post-API, post-browser, and even post smartphone era, how can we channel the heritage we created and recapture the joys of the cozy web?