Ref. :  000001518
Date :  2002-07-23
langue :  Anglais
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Cyberage

Cyberage

Source :  In-Suk Cha


Cyberage, as the Information Age or simply the Internet, is the hydra-headed child of communication technology issuing from the inventions of the telegraph, telephone, radio, television and computer. As a means by which computer from all over the world can connect, the Internet is capable of instant global broadcasting and is, therefore, a device to disseminate great quantities of information. The Internet is, moreover, a medium for interaction between individuals anywhere in the world. These three capabilities, global broadcasting, information dissemination, and enabling individuals anywhere in the world to communicate with each other, combine with their own inherent possibilities and those of societal institutions and human psychology to comprise the basic components of the term cyberage.

Like any technology, cyber technology is constantly transforming the world as it interacts with it and becomes part of it. Biased as it is, it channels its users into a particular way of seeing the world and interacting with others. New industries have grown up within and around cyberspace, new crimes have evolved and old human evils have found new ways to spawn at high tech speed. Hackers, usually young and skilled, possess the potential to break into the most secret files of any organisation, whether it be the secret service of any nation or a commercial firm. Hackers can also shut down business and commerce by sending «infected» messages which command recipient computers to destroy all records and to send the virus on to computers known as the recipient. Laws have been proposed to combat cyber-crime and existing laws have been put to use. Inevitably the laws are interpreted in real, not virtual reality, courtrooms.

Many of the criminal ills of the Internet have a single binding thread: users of the Internet can be, not so much anonymous, as self-created identities. Because the sites on the Internet are so global and so numerous, there is no sensible way to check on which of the information providers are who they say they are. Thus there are cases of mere school children skillfully and disastrously meddling with the stock market, or setting themselves up, quite legally, as experts on the law or any other subject. Often, when the true identities of the imposters are revealed, their advice is still sought, as if virtual reality had morality and propriety enough to guide it through the real world.

This phenomenon of giving oneself over to the opinion of the self-proclaimed expert is not new to the Internet, nor is the tendency of some individuals to become entrenched and radical in their views by meeting only others who share them. Cyberspace merely affords that kind of specialisation and group polarisation to any who desires it. The oft-expressed fear that the Internet seduces people to the insularity of cut-like group is unwarranted in the light of history, however. It is a fear in the same category as the notion that only certain countries were capable of governing themselves, or that the printing press would spell the end of worthy ideas as literate masses would demand frill ad the "dumbing-down" of concepts.

In the meanwhile, the globalisation of some of the most advanced and cherished ideas of humankind is taking place with aid of the Internet. Some of it takes place through cyber universities, some through the most rigorous sort of scholarship and examination of theory and data. Some of the globalisation of humanity's most noble ideas take place because the oppressed and, just as often, those who want to help the oppressed, search for rationale and legitimacy of their cause in communication with the world at large.

Cyberspace will continue to change our lifeworlds in countless, important ways. There is now, for example, a talk of cybermoney as currency. The publishing world is already feeling the effects of cyberpublishing and there has been some experimentation with the notion of books to be printed at «on-demand» stations. That more and more people will not read anything in depth is a possibility as well, but the act of reading itself should become more widespread as the use of computers grows. Statistically, we may even find that the number of thinkers and in-depth readers will increase as educators begin to stress the importance of selecting and transforming cyber information into knowledge through critical thinking.

Millions of individuals throughout the world now have access to computers. Millions more, however, do not. One can find in cyberspace idealists who want the benefits of cyberspace to be available to all. Why shouldn't a wounded nomad, for example, have access to the best medical diagnosis possible through a computer? At the moment it would appear that idealists, though hardly coordinated in the efforts, are more numerous than the criminal or fascistic fanatics of cyberspace. Moreover. The signs of life on the street and on our television sets indicate that the Internet is not as large as those who fear the loss of public intercourse speculate. Cyberspace is a unique technological tool but it is not the only transformative force in our lifeworlds. Education and rationality are two more and with them cybertechnology can be scrutinized and understood in the name of world citizenship. Journals such as the Philosophy of Technology and Science, Technology & Human Values record this task, as do the numerous cases before the courts involving cyberspace privacy and fraud. One need simply type in philosophy and cyberspace or techno realism on a favorite search engine to ascertain just how much the Cyberage is being defined by the lifeworlds it has a share in defining.


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