W15. What is the future of Wikipedia? Will it exist in 20 years? 50? 100? / posted by Sojeong Yeon

      

   In the last blog post, I told that the Wikipedia couldn't disappear. About this question, "Will Wikipedia exist in 20 years? 50? 100?" I want to answer "Yes. It will exist in 20 years." I think Wikipedia will not be disappear as long as people have a desire to create somethings and to share those thing with others. As I told before, people want to help others who are not directly related to themselves. There are some principles related to 'moral reciprocity' and 'self-satisfaction' through Wikipedia. The reason why they continue to write and edit an article could be related to "self-gratification" or "immaterial profit".

    Some people write articles to make it their own 'career' and sometimes they write articles about areas they are interested in as hobbies. Wikipedia also helps that they enhance their professionalism and knowledge by writing articles about what they knows well. Of course, there is reason to help another people because they get some helps from other people. But, I think, the more people feel strongly that it gives them satisfaction and efficacy, the more often they use Wikipedia,

   However, on the other hand, I think Wikipedia can disappear in 50 years. People want to do create somethings and work together consistently for collective intelligence. But, with technology advancing at a fast-growing rate, if the AI technology develops more, then Wikipedia may not be necessary. The AI can replace the activities of humans in the far future. The computer may write a new article and check the errors in the article and edit them. And there can be no administrators. The computer will communicate with users. The Wikipedia will not be same now. It can disappear or other sites which have a different form will appear in 50 years! It is a matter of technology.