Welcome to the Machine
for release 12-09-05
Washington D.C.
Even a minor advance in technology can transform social and political conditions.
I'm thinking about little innovations like movable type printing. When Gutenberg printed his first Bible in 1455, I'm sure he had no idea that it would be a big factor in starting the Protestant Reformation which shook the Roman Church and transformed the political and economic structure of Europe in a mere half century after the Bible could be read by the German laity.
I don't know if the Bible can be classified as information, but it was definitely content and had great story and other books were printed as well, books of science and history. We refer to this information explosion as the Renaissance.
The information explosion continues. From books to newspapers to the telegraph to the telephone to radio and television and now the atom bomb of information explosions, the internet. As we move into the era of wireless broadband portable handheld devices, everyone will be hooked to the worldwide information network.
What reformations might this new information explosion spawn? When a peasant boy or girl in Darfur, Sudan or Yin Yang province in China or in the coca fields in Bolivia can crank up a hundred dollar computer and instantly be able to view the world news or the US Constitution or the opinions of bloggers all over the world or unlimited porn or white supremacist web sites, what ingenue warp and woof might be woven into the new social fabric?
Oh, I'm sure that we are in for transformations that Bill Gates or Moore's Law could never imagine, just as Gutenberg never imagined the implications of his little innovation.
I don't know whether to be charmed or terrified. I shudder at the thought of every citizen with an implanted chip which automatically gives him internet access via a small screen on his retina which he can activate by means of simply closing his eyelids.
Who knows what this revolution may bring? Maybe governments will expire and pure corporate rule will prevail. Maybe some mogul or Microsoft mega-company will gain control of the fiber optic networks and own the internet and be in a position to regulate the flow of all information, eyes wide shut. Maybe a legion of handheld devices will institute mob-rule in the digital ether. Who knows?
Or maybe The Poet's Eye has been watching too many science-fiction movies. Perhaps the technology will inevitably yield to the foibles of basic human nature.
Welcome my son
Welcome to the machine
What did you dream?
It's alright we told you what to dream
You dreamed of a big star
He played a mean gituar
He always ate in the Steak Bar
He loved to drive in his Jaguar
So welcome to the Machine
---Pink Floyd
