[Nettime-bold] RE: <nettime> Technology, the double-edged sword

["G.H. HOVAGIMYAN" <gh@popstar.com>]

Geert Lovink wrote:

The question for me would be why passions in the US about a
potentially dangerous future technology are so high whereas
corporate-governmental takeover of the Internet right now is drawing so few
crowds. Can only the future and past be full of horror, not the present?

GH replies:

The American mythos/ psyche has to do with the individual and individuality.
A different part of our collective psyche in America is fundamentalist
religion and Utopian communities. The USA was created without kings.
Business is as important as government here. What you see as a corporate
takeover of a collective social space we see as a form that has matured and
doesn't need government sponsorship.
The fear of nano tech on the other hand challenges our mythos of both the
individual and religious fundamentalism. It also speaks to the issue of
human suffrage over which we fought a brutal civil war.  Every school child
learns the preamble to the constitution of the US. It says," We hold these
truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal and they are
endowed by their creator with inalienable rights; among these are life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. "
Somehow nano tech threatens that whole idea.
The telephone system, of which the internet is simply an agreed upon
sequence of switching protocols is controlled by governments throughout the
world.  The issue in the US is not government and corporate control of the
internet. The important issue is broadband and wireless and who controls
those delivery systems.
The internet as we know it will continue to exist and may actually serve as
a haven for free communication and dissent while the corporations build
their broadband product delivery systems.


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