Internet & social control

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/30/03 7:51:31 AM, malignd at yahoo.com writes:

<< (For further on this topic (for those not numbed),
another, somewhat more nuanced, take on the Internet
appears in Thomas Friedman's column on yesterday's NY
Times op ed page.)
 >>

Here's the article. I do not think it particularly nuanced. What I do
discern is Friedman attempting to indicate that the new media:
internet, Wi-Fi, etc., is exactly the opposite of top down social
control, but rather, because of its empowerment capabilities, a
real threat to the status quo, and the powers that be, like him. 
The article can be read as an argument for more control of this 
new beast, which has the potential to catch people flat-footed. 

respectfully
--------------------------------------
Is Google God?

June 29, 2003

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN 
 
Since 9/11 the world has felt increasingly fragmented.
Reading the papers, one senses that many Americans are
emotionally withdrawing from the world and that the world
is drifting away from America. The powerful sense of
integration that the go-go-globalizing 1990's created, the
sense that the world was shrinking from a size medium to a
size small, feels over now. 

The reality, though, is quite different. While you were
sleeping after 9/11, not only has the process of
technological integration continued, it has actually
intensified - and this will have profound implications. I
recently went out to Silicon Valley to visit the offices of
Google, the world's most popular search engine. It is a
mind-bending experience. You can actually sit in front of a
monitor and watch a sample of everything that everyone in
the world is searching for. (Hint: sex, God, jobs and, oh
my word, professional wrestling usually top the lists.) 

In the past three years, Google has gone from processing
100 million searches per day to over 200 million searches
per day. And get this: only one-third come from inside the
U.S. The rest are in 88 other languages. "The rate of the
adoption of the Internet in all its forms is increasing,
not decreasing," says Eric Schmidt, Google's C.E.O. "The
fact that many [Internet companies] are in a terrible state
does not correlate with users not using their products." 

VeriSign, which operates much of the Internet's
infrastructure, was processing 600 million domain requests
per day in early 2000. It's now processing nine billion per
day. A domain request is anytime anyone types in .com or
.net. And you ain't seen nothin' yet. Within the next few
years you will be able to be both mobile and totally
connected, thanks to the pending explosion of Wi-Fi, or
wireless fidelity. Using radio technology, Wi-Fi will
provide high-speed connection from your laptop computer or
P.D.A. to the Internet from anywhere - McDonald's, the
beach or your library. 

Says Alan Cohen, a V.P. of Airespace, a new Wi-Fi provider:
"If I can operate Google, I can find anything. And with
wireless, it means I will be able to find anything,
anywhere, anytime. Which is why I say that Google, combined
with Wi-Fi, is a little bit like God. God is wireless, God
is everywhere and God sees and knows everything. Throughout
history, people connected to God without wires. Now, for
many questions in the world, you ask Google, and
increasingly, you can do it without wires, too." 

In other words, once Wi-Fi is in place, with one little
Internet connection I can download anything from anywhere
and I can spread anything from anywhere. That is good news
for both scientists and terrorists, pro-Americans and
anti-Americans. 

And that brings me to the point of this column: While we
may be emotionally distancing ourselves from the world, the
world is getting more integrated. That means that what
people think of us, as Americans, will matter more, not
less. Because people outside America will be able to build
alliances more efficiently in the world we are entering and
they will be able to reach out and touch us - whether with
computer viruses or anthrax recipes downloaded from the
Internet - more than ever. 

"The key point is not just whether people hate us," says
Robert Wright, the author of "Nonzero," a highly original
book on the integrated world. "The key point is that it
matters more now whether people hate us, and will keep
mattering more, for technological reasons. I don't mean
just homemade W.M.D.'s. I am talking about the way
information technology - everyone using e-mail, Wi-Fi and
Google - will make it much easier for small groups to rally
like-minded people, crystallize diffuse hatreds and
mobilize lethal force. And wait until the whole world goes
broadband. Broadband - a much richer Internet service that
brings video on demand to your PC - will revolutionize
recruiting, because video is such an emotionally powerful
medium. Ever seen one of Osama bin Laden's recruiting
videos? They're very effective, and they'll reach their
targeted audience much more efficiently via broadband." 

None of this means we, America, just have to do what the
world wants, but we do have to take it seriously, and we do
have to be good listeners. We, America, "have to work even
harder to build bridges," argues Mr. Wright, because
info-tech, left to its own devices, will make it so much
easier for small groups to build their own little island
kingdoms. And their island kingdoms, which may not seem
important or potent now, will be able to touch us more, not
less.