The world is becoming flat
2pnet.net News:- Thanks to the Net, the world is about to become flat again, reviving the beliefs of ancient peoples, and still held today by the corporate music, movie and software cartels.
Or as The San Francisco Chronicle summarizes it, “By 2020, the Internet could reach the far ends of the world, a population of Luddites could refuse to adopt new technology and choose to disconnect from the Internet, and humans could become the pets of robots, technology experts predicted in a survey released Sunday.”
Isn’t that the case already? ;p
Anyhow, “A low-cost global network will be thriving and creating new opportunities in a ‘flattening’ world,” says a new Pew Net and American Life project report.
But still, “a vocal and sizeable minority of respondents say they are unsure that the policy climate will be favorable for such internet expansion. The center of the resistance, they say, will be in the businesses anxious to preserve their current advantages and in policy circles where control over information and communication is a central value.”
Translated, the usual suspects will do their best to maintain the status quo, blocking innovation and anything which even smells remotely of competition.
“In addition, a significant number of these dissenters argued that the world will not flatten enough to wipe away persistent social inequities,” says Pew
The good news?
We humans will remain in charge of technology, “even as more activity is automated and ’smart agents”’ proliferate.
But “a significant 42% of survey respondents were pessimistic about humans’ ability to control the technology in the future,” says the report. “This significant majority agreed that dangers and dependencies will grow beyond our ability to stay in charge of technology.”
In other findings:
- Virtual reality will be compelling enough to enhance worker productivity and also spawn new addiction problems.
- Tech ‘refuseniks’ will emerge as a cultural group characterized by their choice to live off the network. Some will do this as a benign way to limit information overload, while others will commit acts of violence and terror against technology-inspired change.
- People will wittingly and unwittingly disclose more about themselves, gaining some benefits in the process even as they lose some privacy.
- English will be a universal language of global communications, but other languages won’t be displaced and indeed, “many felt other languages such as Mandarin, would grow in prominence”.
Those who “raised challenges” think governments and corporations won’t necessarily embrace policies to allow the network, “to spread to under-served populations; that serious social inequalities will persist; and that ‘addiction’ is an inappropriate notion to attach to people’s interest in virtual environments,” says the study,
But respondents were split on whether the world will be a better place in 2020, “due to the greater transparency of people and institutions afforded by the internet”. Some 46% agreed the benefits of greater transparency of organizations and individuals would outweigh the privacy costs, and 49% didn’t.
Also See:
Pew – The Future of the Internet II, September 24, 2006
The San Francisco Chronicle – Tech’s experts predict future, September 25, 2006
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