Chapter 12: Critical Issues
As with all major changes, the benefits of the information society will carry costs. There will be dislocations in some business sectors that will create a need for worker retraining. The availability of virtually free communications and computing will alter the relationships of nations, and of socioeconomic groups within nations. The power and versatility of digital technology will raise new concerns about individual privacy, commercial confidentiality, and national security. There are, moreover, equity issues that will have to be addressed. The information society should serve all of its citizens, but only the technically sophisticated and economically privileged. In short, a range of important issues confronts us. I don’t necessarily have the solutions, but, as I started off the book saying, now is a good time for a broad discussion.