social implications of the internet (I)the 'death of distance'where will we live, work, and learn?1in the global village, stupid!HofI 09 -- Social Implications I determinism once more"Electric circuitry has overthrown the regime of 'time' and 'space' and pours upon us instantly and continuously concerns of all other men. It has reconstituted dialogue on a global scale. Its message is Total Change, ending psychic, social, economic, and political parochialism. . . . Ours is a brand-new world of allatonceness. 'Time' has ceased, 'space' has vanished. We now live in a global village . . . a simultaneous happening."Marshall Mcluhan et al., Medium is the Massage, 19672... this age of ours ... when the pulsations of electricity vibrate and throb around this earth, uniting nations as one family by those powerful yet sensitive bonds wrought by science and riveted by man's quenchless thirst for still higher and better achievements.Morris S. Wise, Trade-marks and Trade-mark Law, 1898HofI 09 -- Social Implications I determinism again"If the presence of electricity can be made visible in any desired part of the circuit, I see no reason why intelligence may not be instantaneously transmitted by electricity to any distance." --Samuel Morse"the cost of communicating ideas ... is now distance-free" --Frances Cairncross3HofI 09 -- Cairncross's determined trendspotting1. Death of distance2. Fate of Location3. Improved Connections4. Increased Mobility5. More Customized Networks6. Deluge of Information7. Increased Value of Brand8. More Minnows, more Giants9. More Competition10. Increased Value of Niches11. Communities of Practices12. Loose-Knit Corporation Culture13. Openness414. Manufacturers as Service Providers15. Inversion of Home and Office16. Proliferation of Ideas17. Decline of National Authority18. Loss of Privacy19. Global Premium for Skills20. Rebirth of Cities21. Rise of English22. Communities of Culture23. A New Trust24. People as Scarce Resource25. Global PeaceHofI 09 -- improved connections"Most people on earth will eventually have access to networks that are interactive and broadband. The Internet will continue to exist in its present form, but will also carry many other services, including telephone and television." -- CairncrossImagine a magical device that could boost entrepreneurship and economic activity, provide an alternative to bad roads and unreliable postal services, widen farmers’ access to markets, and allow swift and secure transfers of money. Now stop imagining: the device in question is the mobile phone. – The Economist, July 2005The idea gap, --Paul Romer 5HofI 09 -- Social Implications I national unity"The establishment of the telegraph is ... the best response to the publicists who think that France is too large to form a Republic. The telegraph shortens distances and, in a way, brings an immense population together at a single point." --Claude Chappe, 1793"at bottom, this invention might suffice to make possible the establishment of democracy among a large population ... no reason why it would not be possible for all the citizens of France to communicate their will ... in such a way that this communication might be considered instantaneous."--Alexandre Vandermond, 17956HofI 09 -- Social Implications I single pulse"Tomorrow the hearts of the civilized world will beat in a single pulse, and from that time forth forevermore the continental divisions of the earth will, in a measure, lose those conditions of time and distance which now mark their relations. ... The Atlantic has dried up and we become in reality as well as wish, one country."Times7HofI 09 -- Social Implications I global peace"the great chain that will bring all civilized nations into instantaneous communication ... the most potent of all the means of civilization, and the most effective in breaking down the barriers of evil prejudice and custom" Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, 1868"the hand of progress beckons .... a rivet is loosened from the chains of the oppressed" Commercial and Financial Chronicle, 18658HofI 09 -- Social Implications I keeping distance alive "The accumulation of many large manufacturing establishments in the same district has a tendency to bring together purchasers or their agents from great distances, and thus to cause the institution of a public mart or exchange. This contributes to diffuse information relative to the supply of raw materials, and the state of demand for their produce, with which it is necessary manufacturers should be well acquainted. The very circumstance of collecting periodically, at one place, a large number both of those who supply the market and of those who require its produce, tends strongly to check the accidental fluctuations to which a small market is always subject, as well as to render the average of the prices much more uniform." --Charles 9Charles Babbage1791-1871HofI 09 -- Social Implications I Marshall's localizationIn an early stage of civilization every place had to depend on its own resources for most of the heavy wares which it consumed;Consequently the lighter and more expensive articles of dress and personal adornment, together with spices and some kinds of metal implements used by all classes, and many other things for the special use of the rich, often came from astonishing distances.This elementary localization of industry gradually prepared the way for many of the modern developments of division of labour 10Alfred Marshall1842-1924HofI 09 -- Social Implications I divisions of laborthe super-American city"Air and earth form an ant-hill, veined by channels of traffic, rising storey upon storey. Overhead-trains, overground-trains, underground-trains, pneumatic express-mails ... chains of motor vehicles. ... Each person has nothing but quite definite tasks. The various professions are concentrated at definite places. ... Amusements are concentrated in other parts of the city. And elsewhere again are the towers to which one returns and finds wife, family, gramophone, and soul. Tension and relaxation, activity and love are meticulously kept separate. ... And man needs no more for his happiness ... Besides, zoology makes it clear that a sum of reduced individuals may very well form a totality of genius."--Robert Musil, A Man without Qualities c. 1920s11Robert Musil1880-1942HofI 09 -- Social Implications I amusementshome entertainment12NYT, 1931HofI 09 -- Social Implications I work and learningMany various causes have led to