Informing Ourselves to Death

To what extent has computer technology been an advantage to the masses of people? … These people have had their private matters made more accessible to powerful institutions. They are more easily tracked and controlled; they are subjected to more examinations and are increasingly mystified by the decisions made about them. They are more often reduced to mere numerial objects. They are being buried by junk mail. They are easy targets for advertising agencies and political organizations. The schools teach their children to operate computerized systems instead of teaching things that are more valuable to children … It is to be expected that the winners … will encourage the losers to be enthusiastic about computer technology … they tell them that their lives will be conducted more efficiently, discreetly neglecting to say from whose point of view or what might be the costs of such efficiency.

Welcome to the Emerald City! Please Ignore the Man Behind the Curtain

Attitudes favor interpreting the world along the lines of rapid change, networks of individuals, finely-calibrated meritocracy, individualism, privatization, and a dismissal of collective goods. These attitudes provide little resistance to the erosion of the remaining public sphere.

Introduction

You are never “out-of-touch” as you use a smart phone to receive electronic mail messages in your car and a pocket-sized personal digital assistant when you are walking the streets of a foreign city. You stay in touch with world events and business trends with personalized electronic newspapers that contain information about subjects you have programmed into digital robots.

Who’s Kidding Whom?

You must make sure the new technologies are cheap and fast. From the beginning, they must be as inexpensive as current alternatives and as fast as possible. A digital telephone line shouldn’t cost a penny more than an analog one. In fact, since analog service is actually derived from the digital guts of the telephone network digital lines should be cheaper. And yes, if you follow the law of the Microcosm, you will have to let things get out of control. Videophones will become commonplace. Remote links to offices and online services will become transparent. New and possibly dangerous unintended consequences will pop up.

Telecommunications: Internet as Simple as a Phone Call

The network of networks could enable a million human brains to interconnect and form a sort of planetary superbrain … By 2020, 12 billion machines from cardiac simulators to vehicle braking systems will be connected to the Internet.

New Media – What’s Real & What’s Not

New Media will not be the same as either cable, telephone, or PC industries. The New Media industry will be created over the next three to five years out of innumerable wild guesses, valiant tries, and spectacular flops. There is no formula for success. There is no roadmap. And there is no place to hide.

The Internet – Where’s It All Going?

Mobile access to the Internet by way of digital radio-equipped notebook computers will become commonplace. Infrared communication will be used for local links so that lecturers can automatically download their notes, charts, and graphs into students’ notebooks. Business cards will be replaced with “info-squirts” between notebooks. People sitting down at face-to-face meetings will be able to ‘Internet’ instantly this way. Of course, security is going to get very interesting in this environment.

The Internet – Where’s It All Going?

We’re … seeing the emergence of financial-transaction support on the Internet, and perhaps bill-paying will at last become a part of that landscape. Teachers and parents will be able to confer by e-mail, and Johnny won’t be able to claim that there is no homework because you’ll see it on the Web page for his school and classes.