A problem inherent in the virtualization of thought is the loss of quality control and value hierarchies: everything fed into the internet - from Goethe's Faust to a how-to guide on inline skating - has the same Existenzberechtigung (right to exist) in a completely decontextualised and egalitarian environment, with each word constituting a few bytes of data.

Traditionally, selection and valuation is usually based not just on the material itself but also on signals and sources external to it. The new generation of thought, however, might only exist - and have to be discovered - virtually. However, judging a work rooted solely in a virtual context is much more difficult than before, because of the very nature of a medium characterized by fragmentation, anonymity, availability and selectivity 1. Immersed in a context-averse medium (the internet), knowledge and thought is homogenized and ultimately devalued in a perversely egalitarian quagmire.

1 fragmentation = although "links" serve to connect content, the "whole" is seldom preceivable

2 anonymity = the authorship is per se "invisible", anonymous

3 availability = the internet is accessable around the clock from around the world; everyone can create content with little effort

4 selectivity = a web page is always "virtual", and data is usually restricted to one type of channel: text, video, pictures.