[Chapter-delegates] The Future Internet

[Fred Baker]

On May 15, 2009, at 3:10 AM, Fatima Lasay wrote:

> Trevor raises the cultural aspect of visions of the Future Internet.  
> His high concern is the monolithic nature of a globalised system of  
> consumerism powerfully supported by the Internet.

Hmm.

Let me ask a question. I don't believe that the Internet itself  
changes culture, any more than the Telephone or the invention of the  
printing press changed culture. What has happened is that they  
facilitated communication and the exchange of knowledge, and people  
used them in ways that were new and therefore different.

One could argue, for example, that the widespread use of the printing  
press resulted in, at least for some languages, standardization of  
spelling and the meanings of words. The expectation that the language  
we call "English" had something to do with an island country off the  
European coast gave people worldwide - wherever the British Empire  
went - a connection to a people and a place that many of them never  
visited and facilitated commerce among those disparate peoples. That  
doesn't mean that they all developed the same culture; Winston  
Churchill once quipped that we are "divided by a common language".

Similarly with the telephone system, we have developed a sense that  
people can probably be reached using it and it is reasonable to expect  
to speak directly with a person half a world away. But we don't dance  
differently, or develop new foods, because we can do that. What  
changes is an expectation of the possibility of verbal communication.

I would not expect that the Internet itself changes culture either. It  
does allow us to easily share culture and share information, and that  
information may change culture. A hammer doesn't build a house, but it  
may be used by a carpenter when he does build one. I would argue that  
it is the interchange of communications that changes culture, not the  
medium that carries them.

In what way do you see the Internet itself changing culture?