1984 Foreword: Internet and social control

[jbor]

    [...] the wonders of computer technology circa 2003,
    most notably the Internet, a development that promises
    social control on a scale those quaint old twentienth
    -century tyrants with their goofy moustaches could
    only dream about. (p. xvi)

>> Way I read it, Pynchon's point
>> is not that the Internet was specifically *developed* for the purpose of
>> social control (he doesn't address its origins), and it's not that it's
>> currently ("circa 2003") being *used* for the purpose of social control, but
>> that it's something which *might* be used for that purpose at some
>> undisclosed future time. A prophesy, in other words.

Is it the Internet which "promises" social control -- it is only a tool,
after all -- or is it the tyrants? There is something a little askew in the
way the two are being conflated.

And even allowing it as a legitimate concern, what's the solution? Increased
regulation? Total deregulation (thereby allowing child pornographers and
terrorist networks free rein and absolute legal impunity)? Boycott?
Sabotage? Smashing all the computers like some modern-day Lud? Or, most
bizarre of all, putting one's name to (and brazenly advertising) a manual
which not only assists but *encourages* all the corporate sharks in their
ongoing manipulations of the medium for the purposes of, if not fun,
certainly profit, social control and, potentially anyway, tyranny, while
simultaneously calling for the moderation of an open discussion forum and
flooding the 'Net with propagandistic spam on a daily basis?!

best