Current Internet technologies are the result of an original assemblage of old and new technologies , whose networking interaction produces novelties. An analysis of some key aspects of this technological blend may help to understand the emergence of unpredictable features and their effects on human communities. Yet, these phenomena are not uniquely determined by the technological infrastructure but also depend on the underlying social and economical trends. Often, unsound claims and promises bias the role of the Internet and artificially canalize its aims and potentialities towards a decreasing diversity of human experiences. Moreover, the digital world is often used as an "image" for physical or biological phenomena, or even as an intrinsic structure of knowledge or reality. Its use, instead, in an interactive and constructive way may enhance human activities and increase knowledge by sound practices. The role of "information" is crucial in this context. This notion is identified, in physics, with "negentropy" (or negative entropy): a close analysis of the current ideas of entropy, negentropy and "anti-entropy" will help to clarify and focus on the general phenomenon also concerning human activities. In particular, the abstract discussion may clarify the polymorphic meaning and the actual role of information. A modified semiotics, dualism, one-dimensional coding, measurement, exact data, following the rule, term rewriting systems. How increasing concentration of wealth and power changes the networks; the possible "distributed" alternatives; elaboration of information vs construction of sense; averaging out; stereotypes (bibliometrics vs access to knowledge); expression or repression of minority thinking.