A Whole New Future

In The Master Switch, Tim Wu tells a cautionary tale about our technological future. Through keen insight, Wu hypothesizes what’s to come in terms of corporate America and governmental policy, which deals primarily with multi-person communication. From exemplifying the viewpoint of the Mega Corporation, Wu explains how this can lead to the downfall of our fundamental rights as citizens of the United States, rights that include freedom of speech and freedom of press. Wu then presents the idea of control over intellectual property and the rights to distribute such property. In contrast William Gibson focuses on the physical control technology has over the characters in his novel Neuromancer. He shows us how technology can consume Case’s and Molly’s lives, not only in the social arena by ways of communication, but also with the very essence of being human, by altering their personalities. Both authors prove how through this technological progress, we develop a dependency on the Internet. For Wu this dependency is evident in changes of societal norms and practices while Gibson on the other hand goes one step further by claiming that these innovations will alter our actual physical being. While both arguments have merit, Wu’s claims seem to be more plausible and reflective of where the American corporation is today.

Wu explores in how dependent a majority of Americans have become on the Internet and other forms of communication technology. Look to the University of Richmond campus; you see this reliance on our smart phones and Internet connection everywhere, from the hourly updates students submit to their Facebook profiles to the prevalence of telecommunication devices seen in every corner of campus. I have even been witness to my friends exclaiming with extreme exaggeration “I would never be able to live with out my cell phone.” Through Wu’s writing he analyzes this dependence amongst the youth of America, but also the dependence that is running rampant in the upper middle class and the corporate world. Wu hypothesizes the detrimental effect this severe dependence could have on a community if these mega corporations, such as AT&T or Apple, were to get control of this medium. “This time is different: with everything on one network, the potential power to control is so much greater.” (Wu 318) From this quote we see a wary prediction that once a corporation gains control of the Internet, if used to the company’s advantage and not for the betterment of the country could present an be inconceivable dominant power.

The future that Wu predicts is already commonplace through out much of corporate America. Wu touches on the fear that once a company gains control of the airwaves then the corporation would then use this power towards their own personal gain. Wu also brings to our attention that fact that “they have to be inclined to invest time and money.” (Wu 221) Why be inclined to make improvements in the communications field if not for money? A company has to have some incentive; none of these corporations would survive unless they were turning a profit. However the way that many achieve this is to control the access to information. Apple exemplifies the idea of access control. Looking towards many of Apples products today you can see the changes, from an open and sharing medium to a closed source with a lack of originality. Apple discourages home tinkers and in general dissuades its clients from improving their apple made electronics without Apple-licensed applications. Apple has even gone so far as to block flash player, a way to view animations and movies, from iphones and ipads, making the consumer unable to access any application using this technology. This restriction, is for the most part because Flash was being developed by a rival competitor. This is taking away our essential rights as citizens of a country to access the information which we deem necessary. We have freedom of speech but then the question that arises is what if we can’t publish what we choose because it’s upsetting to a nation-wide corporation, is that in turn taking away from our freedom of speech? We see through the entertainment industry through out Wu’s writing how paramount attempted to promote only those companies associated with them in effect limiting our freedom of press. Does Apple have this right to choose what we can or cannot have access to based purely on their profit margins and whom they feel is their biggest rival of the day?

Another source which is beginning to take advantage of the power of the Internet are governments around the world. For the most part the U.S has little barriers via the Internet but countries such as China will go to extreme lengths to ensure that their citizens have limited access to this vast wealth of knowledge. While China doesn’t have a constitution as formal as the U.S, doesn’t everyone have the right to freedom of speech and freedom of press? If China is already taking these rights away and putting restrictions on what’s acceptable to post via the Internet then where do we draw the line? If Wu’s predictions are enacted then the power to the biggest information highway we have ever seen is in the hands of these complex governments and if they so desire they have the ability to shut this source down. Wu explains how through this new medium, the Internet, embodies all our communication technologies combined. “The Internet by 2010 had become a fledgling universal network for all types of data: phone calls, video and television, data, a potential replacement for every single information industry of the twentieth century” (Wu 256). This process of combining all of information technology can on one hand be extremely convenient but on the other hand it can be a dangerous amount of centralized power. In the short story “When Sysadimns Ruled the Earth” By Cory Doctorow we see this future enacted. It’s a fictional representation of what will happen if we place too much power in the hands of one medium, the Internet.  In Doctorow’s work he explains, “We are in charge of the most important organizational and governmental tool the world has ever seen.” (Doctorow 22) From this recognition we see, if not used for the purpose of bettering society and improving communication barriers, just how detrimental the Internet can be.

In contrast to the future Wu envisions in The Master Switch, Gibson shows a different side to the development of information technologies. Wu deals mainly with the external rights that our dependency to electronics and the Internet has had on business practices and as mentioned above, our access to information. Gibson shows us through his protagonist Case how physically we are all dependent on a constant information source. When, early in the novel, Case looses his connection to cyberspace we see this is the worse fate he could imagine. “For Case, who lived for the bodiless exultation of cyberspace, it was the fall…The body was meat.” (Gibson 6) Gibson lets us explore a future where our physical selves are impacted and altered in order to connect to cyberspace. In contrast to The Master Switch, where we see societal and legal rights being stripped from citizens, in Neuromancer their fundamental rights as human beings are being altered, the right to your own body.

Where we are at in the development of technology and with corporation practices in general, we can see Wu’s future beginning to form around us already. However Gibson shows a gut wrenching view of what may be to come in the far off future. For where most of the American public is at, Gibson's is a much too invasive future. The main contrast between these two claims is the idea of choice. When you alter you body, as seen in Neuromancer, you don’t have the option to reverse that decision and connect to cyberspace through some other portal; however Wu shows us that everyone has the opportunity to not purchase the iphone and then in turn to switch cell phones to ensure you receive the use of that flash player. Students on UR's campus boast their dependence on cell phones; however, most would find the idea of physically altering their bodies and essentially their personality to connect to the Internet an impractical and irrational thought. I feel that while censorship is not ideal and not wanted in any way, its more acceptable for a majority of American citizens. This might be the scariest thought yet, because if it is already accepted in communities such as college campuses, then it is less noticeable for many when more and more of our rights are taken away. We very well may wake up one day and find we have entered Wu’s world surrounded by blocks and restrictions and our lives embodied entirely by the Internet.

Work Cited:

Wu, Tim. The Master Switch: the Rise and Fall of Information Empires. London: Atlantic, 2010. Print.

Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Ace, 2004. Print.

Doctorow, Cory. "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth." Science Fiction Storys Aug. 2006. Online. Web. 8 Feb. 2011. <http://baens-universe.com/articles/when_sysadmins_ruled_the_earth>.

Losing a Husband to WOW

Last week as a finished the last couple chapters in Julian Dibbles ,Play Money, one comment he wrote really stuck with me. As he briefly commented on the collapse of his marriage, he causally said the main reason for this separation was not because of his business in UO but for a variety of other reasons. I find this hard to believe, that after a year of him obsessing over a multi-player computer game that it couldn’t have had some effect on his marriage in the long run. I was also shocked to see how in “Second Skin” the term “World of Warcraft widow” was used to describe someone whose husband had essentially abandoned them for thousands of wizards and fictional creatures online. How could these women be ok with this, was my first question. How could they let their husbands or significant other, spend hundreds of hours online socializing with their virtual friends instead of spending that quality time with them? I know that when your in a relationship with someone there is always compromise involved with letting the other person do what they love but where do you draw the line? Also isn’t this one of the main indicators of someone who has an addiction, when they start to lose everything they care about in their lives. You see this all the time with alcoholics and people with substance abuse issues. One man in “Second Skin” makes the bold statement that he tried to hide his gaming from his current fiancée because he was worried about how she would react. Isn’t that making the situation worse. If she were to turn around today and lash out of him because of his excess time spent with his virtual friends then I feel he really would have no right to retaliate because he wasn’t up front with her to begin with. This term “World of Warcraft widow” is probably used to a certain extent in a humorous degree but in the end I feel it should be used to describe a much sadder reality for these people. It shows how even the gamers who do have meaningful relationships in real life are abandoning them for an online world. They are cutting off the contact with the “real world” and in essence leaving it behind for their new virtual one.

A New Type of Community

            Through out my childhood I was continuously surrounded by video games. Either from a commercial on television boasting the greatest next thing to my brother sitting in front of the computer for hours playing the new madden or hot new multiplayer game out at that time. I dabbled here and there trying some of the new games out and I have to admit I was quite taken by the Sims. But sooner or later with out fail, I would get bored and leave the disk to gather dust on top of our computer table. I would always wonder to myself when looking at my brother or fellow classmates, how could someone sit there for hours engrossed in a game that essentially, in my ten-year-old eyes, had no purpose. Reading Play Money by Julian Dibbell, all these questions came surfacing yet again. Reading pages after pages of someone entranced in a video game in a way opened my eyes to the virtual world that thousands of people live in every day. I can see the relationship that Dibbell was forming with other avatars online and how essentially that was becoming part of his life. How could you not consider someone you talk to for hours a day not part of your life. From reading Play Money I believe multiplayer games have a different sort of pull on people than say the normal sports game or single player games. These new found communities like Ultima Online and Everquest have thriving economies and complex interpersonal relationships. One quote that stood out to me from Dibbell writing states.

“There were strong, compelling pleasures to be found in wanting a thing you couldn’t have, especially a thing as lovely as a “fusion with fiction, a true Dreaming.”(Dibbell,150) These people playing Ultima Online are merely dreamers who are looking to escape into a fantasy land and maybe get away from their old lives for just a bit, but the question remains when does fantasy fuse with reality? People spend so much of their lives all encompassed with these games. Where do you draw the line and say enough and log off the computer after 15 hours of slaying dragons. So from all this self-contemplation and reading of Play Money I still have not drawn conclusion yet about these online communities. I feel unless you truly commit yourself to joining, then you will never know. They are places where you must experience it first hand in order to pass any judgment or criticism.

Project 2 Draft

In The Master Switch Wu tells a cautionary tale about a potential future of society. He deals mainly with the corporate America side to the future, showing how with huge mega-corporations in control, could lead to the potential downfall of our basic human rights. Gibson in Neuromancer tells a little different of a tale. Neuromancer shows us a world where many of our rights are taken away but not in the same way. Neuromancer is a scary depiction of what our future may become. From simstim implants to cyberspace this shows us the fate to which we all may come to one day. However startling both futures may be Wu seems to be onto something. Looking around at Richmond’s campus today you can see his vision coming true everywhere. From block flash player on my iphone to the censored Internet on campus we can see the cycle prevalent so many places we look. However different these two ideas about the future of our society may be they also tie in together almost perfectly. They both deal with the dependence that a society has or will have on the Internet or “cyberspace.” Gibson shows us more how we can be affected from it and Wu is more with the effects of who has the power to control that medium which we are so dependent on.

One of Wu’s stronger points through out The Master Switch was that with the new medium of the internet the power behind it is too great to be placed in the hands of one major company or even several company’s and the larger corporations get a handle on the information outlet then in the end they will censor towards their best interest. As evident at the very end of The Master Switch the Internet is much too powerful of a device. “This time is different: with everything on one network, the potential power to control is so much greater.” (Wu,pg 318) 

This wary prediction, that once someone get control of the Internet the control over our society will be unimaginable is a fair assumption.

When looking at opinions and beliefs about the future this fear is up there as the scariest. The short story When "Sysadimns Ruled the Earth" by Cory Doctorow is another fictional representation of what will happen if we place so much power in the hands of one device, the Internet.

“We are in charge of the most important organizational and governmental tool the world has ever seen.” (pg 22  When sysadimins ruled the earth)

While this is only a fictional story about a small group of people who after a nuclear attack strive to keep the Internet alive, its still holds some importance and we can look to this story as well as a foreshadowing of what happens when we put so much into one thing. In the story it also explains as well how the “bad” guys in the story organized and pulled together in order to destroy the world. The quote above is exactly what Wu is talking about and what he fears. He fears that since the Internet and the network is becoming so powerful and such a controlling force that if the power to control it gets in the hands of the wrong people then it could be detrimental to the world. The Internet, which is a place where all your media can go, is a fountain of information and of power.

“The Internet by 2010 had become a fledgling universal network for all types of data: phone calls, video and television, data, a potential replacement for every single information industry of the twentieth century.” (Wu, 256) In this passage for the most part Wu was merely trying to suggest how the Internet had become to this day, however if you think about Wu is foreshadowing a scary but yet exciting future as well. A future where every piece of intellectual property can be found on one medium and which would be in essence, the center of many peoples lives. 

Imagine all of time people could save going to one place for pretty much everything. You can already see this happening with schools who are switching their teaching methods to involve students with their own laptops which have all of their textbooks uploaded directly to it. In many ways the world is already evolving the way Wu predicted it. Practically all of my friends have some version of a smart phone where we have not only texting and calling but internet, email, games and much, much more. The scary thing is what happens when this fails or service goes out? Would our society be able to continue on with out the Internet?

In Neuromancer we see through out the book Case’s punishment in the beginning and reward in the end is essentially access to the brain-computer interface to access the global computer network. In the quote from Neuromancer it is referencing the loss of the access to Cyperspace.

“For Case, who lived for the bodiless exultation of cyberspace, it was the fall…The body was meat.” (Gibson, 6)

This passage indicates that you aren’t anything with out the connection to cyberspace and that source of information, you just “meat.” What a scary though that you couldn’t be anything with out the Internet, that you had no substance. This also can be considered an extreme case even in Neuromancer because Case was a cowboy who devoted a majority of his life towards cyberspace. I’m sure that if you go out into society today you could find people who, if you took away the Internet than their whole identity would be stripped from them but that’s not really the point. The point is that if society gets to the where people could take away that access by damaging your physical being we’ve sunk to a new low. This ties in with Wu’s fear about the major corporations gaining control of the information outlets than they might have the power to take away that outlet for their own personal gain. You can see this today through Chinas privacy and Internet laws. While they’re not damaging their citizens physical being to keep them off the Internet I’m going to speculate to say that who know what would happen to those people if we had a system from Neuromancer. Would the Chinese government go as far as permanently damaging their citizen’s minds in order to keep them out of Cyperspace? Well never know but the future that Wu predicts shows how in many cases the power hungry mega empires will not stop at anything in order to get ahead of the competition and keep their revenues high. For the most part these huge corporations don’t even care about the betterment of society and promotion the development of future inventions. When Steve Case, CEO and president of AOL was asked if would do anything differently regarding the merger between AOL and Time Warner his thoughts were. “Case has a different vision in hindsight: “I would have bought Google.” (Wu, 268) Case doesn’t go through the process and think to himself I really should have come up with a product which was as revolutionary as Google. No he simple wanted to shut the process down. 

This behavior is a startling vision of what’s to come in our future. A future where copyrights are abundant and Mega corporations control the airwaves. With the way the Internet is headed this is a very probable assumption for he future. Just looking at Apples products which have almost a cult following and yet we see their company closing their products off more and more to the public. However I feel if we take some action and the general public speaks out and will not stand for this then something can be done. We need to keep the Internet a free and open medium where many people’s creative juices flow naturally.  And while having all of your information on one super network as we’ve seen in Gibson tale of the future that isn’t always necessarily a good thing. We need to make sure were careful as to how dependent we get on the Internet because one day we could wake up and our minds are messed up permanently in order to keep us from accessing information out there. Gibson and Wu are very much related in this aspect because both show how unless we change something soon if we don’t break this dependency then this is what the future holds. A future of censoring and restrictions, the type of future which is terrifies me to this day.  

                                                                   Work Cited:

Wu, Tim. The Master Switch: the Rise and Fall of Information Empires. London: Atlantic, 2010. Print.

Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Ace, 2004. Print.

A New Kind of Addiction

        

           On a normal day in my life I’ll wake up, usually get dressed, turn my computer on, wash my face, and then log onto Facebook. Facebook has become something that is now integrated into my life, like texting and talking on the phone. It is a medium where I can communicate with people, who I’m not necessarily good enough friends with that I have their phone number. Or simple it’s somewhere I can send a message to an old friend that’s not urgent enough to get answered right away via text message but still has some value. On Saturday the 5^th of February I began tracking my use of this new and ever addictive portal. This is a brief break down of my day. At 11 I got up and went to breakfast, then headed off to the library. For about 4 hours, I sat there in B1 committed to doing various assignments that had piled up through out the week. As I leafed through Neuromancer, I casually checked Facebook. I had a strict system, read 10 pages and then take a short break. This short break usually if not always consisted of me going on Facebook. It’s clearly amazing how much can change in ten pages. After leaving the library Facebook which iis always opened on a tab on my computer, is constantly refreshed as I go about various chores I need to do and don’t worry because if I’m not in my room chances are my friends are down the hall on their Facebook too. Before I go out and leave for the night I spend about 40 minutes actually sitting down and responding to comments and messages left to me through out the day or the previous day I haven’t gotten around to. When I come back for the night I check Facebook really quick, just before I go to bed. 

As you can see this Facebook habit of mine has gotten a little out of control. However I do think there are some major pluses. With Facebook you get to correspond with people you wouldn’t normally talk to. You also get to share your experiences via pictures and status updates to keep others apprised of your life. I feel that Facebook gives us everything we need in terms of communication and media at this moment in time. We haven’t created a “consensual hallucination” as seen in Neuromancer, because at this point in our lives and in society it isn’t necessary and if anything it’s a little unnecessary. One of the main points of Facebook is that it helps you connect with people you wouldn’t normally call on the phone or text. You have hundreds of “friends” but more than likely not all of those people are actually your close personal friends you would chat with for hours. The “Consensual hallucination” seems so much personally than even a phone call, that you would only want to go through that experience with someone you were very close with. Society at this point has created the devices already where if you want to be in close contact you can be, but if you want to talk to 50 of your closest acquaintances that’s a possibility as well. 

What Have We Become?

            Global warming, an issue that to this day is on forefront of many government official’s and citizens minds. Many have heard the common concept of keeping the planet clean in order to provide a better tomorrow for our children and grandchildren. At the rate were going this seems highly unlikely if not greatly improbable. With clean air alerts in china and huge amounts of people running around with masks covering their faces to try and keep healthy, this shows how for the most part were not moving in a positive direction.. When reading Neuromancer by William Gibson, this scary foreshadow of the future kept bringing to light the shape that the planet had become I couldn’t help but realize the parallels to the world, which we live in today.

“the air had gotten worse; it seemed to have teeth tonight, and half the crowd wore filtration masks.” (pg 15)

      In the quote above it shocked me to see the similarity of today’s society. There were many times in my childhood when I was listening to the radio or watching television and the newscasters said we were on high alert for the quality of air. Global warming and the breaking down of our planet is a problem weighing heavy on many peoples minds. Gibson in Neuromancer was writing a cautionary tale of what he didn’t want the world to become how scary it is to see that in many ways it already has. While some aspects in the book may be a bit of an exaggeration

“Then a mist closed over the black water and the drifting shoals of waste.” (pg 44)

Our water hasn’t necessarily come to this, but everyday when we do nothing we are getting closer and closer to Gibson’s fictional story. We should have taken this and tried to learn from it, not only from a social aspect but also from an environmental stand point as well. If in the 80’s when the book was released, the whole world stood up and took notice, then who knows the effect it could have had on the planet today. All I know is that many people read Gibson’s book and instead of looking at the many negatives that could be derived from the text, such as the black water and harsh air, instead they looked to the high tech machinery and an easier way of life. If anything we need to take Gibson’s advice now and start reversing the damage created to the planet so that one day we don’t wake up and we really are living in Neuromancer.