This is one of nearly a thousand foresight statements shared by people from around the world. To return to the Voices of the People home page or to refine your search, click here.
Name: Lyandra
From: New York
Bio: Internet user; worked in online biz dev for two years with Sony; MSFT; VeriSign; IBM; Intel
Area of Expertise: Entrepreneur/Business Leader
Topic: Community/Culture
Headline: Interactive Cable is Going to Save the World!
Nutshell: Maybe the metaphysical implications of online communications will force our American community to address the fault lines in our culture. Maybe computers will make us more human.
Vision:There’s a line in "With Honors" – "Interactive cable’s going to save the world." I am appropriately embarassed that I am quoting a Brendan Frasier movie, however; I hear that line in my head from time to time when contemplating the future of the internet.
In the United States the internet is a utility in the vein of electricity or water. The Wi-Fi wars in Philadelphia and Culver City illustrate that it is no longer a question of if but how the internet will become inextricably intertwined in American daily life. That thought conjures images both halcyon and Orwellian.
Unilateral access to the intenet through municipal services would engage those currently disenfranchised from the information revolution: the poor. However one defines the online community it cannot truly represent the future until it accounts for all sectors of the populace. This universal adaption requires that the American people put thier faith in the government or massive corporations, neither of which are driven by purely altruisitic impulses.
The free exchange of ideas and information cannot be complete until the entire community is involved. In the end, the internet will foster a community where the traditional signifiers of prejudice, race, creed, gender will go unnoticed until the offline meetings.
Maybe the metaphysical implications of online communications will force our American community to address the fault lines in our culture. Maybe computers will make us more human.
Date Submitted: January 6, 2005
Back to search