denbushi | blog

“The Information Superhighway,” or simply the “ISH”

if you’re a with-it, modern technophile. We’ve all heard the

term by now, but how many of us really know what it means? Vice-president

Al Gore has been chanting it like a mantra since before the previous

election, selling the idea as some kind of modern Panacea for

America and the world. Print heavyweights like Time and Reader’s

Digest have begun to join computer magazines in regaling the coming

of the “Information Society”. Even the Seattle Times

has jumped on the ISH bandwagon with their fledgling “Personal

Technology” section, a once-weekly “guide” to personal

computing that reads more like a clumsy attempt at techno-savvy

journalism.

Perhaps the most glaring fact overlooked by all of these new voices

is that the information highway already exists. A high-speed

data and communications network is in place right now,

and boasts over two million connections worldwide, including universities,

corporations, and commercial access providers. It has for years

been the sole domain of an eclectic sub-culture unknown to most

Americans, and is often referred to as the Internet. Known simply

as “the Net” by its inhabitants, it is far more than

just a concept; it’s a virtual reality. Teeming with life, it

is an exclusive club whose members share a love for technology

and the ability to use it. And not only computer freaks and engineering-types,

either. The very nature of the net (free, widely distributed,

and substantial rather than flashy) has attracted writers, radicals

and revolutionaries. No one owns the Net. Unrestricted and uncensored,

it is a vast medium for free expression whose voices now number

in the millions.

And there is more… Connected, you can logon to a computer in

Hamburg, talk in “real-time” to a colleague in Tokyo,

join a message forum wholly dedicated to loathing Barney the dinosaur,

or send a letter to a friend in Australia that will get there…

right about now.

The global population of the Net is small; about 15 million.

It has attracted few in the past because it was both unwieldy

and inaccessible. Accounts were not readily available to those

without access to university or government computer systems, and

the spartan UNIX interface was downright user-hostile to those

unfamiliar with its arcane repertoire of commands. Proficiency

in traversing the Net, “netsurfing”, required considerable

time and effort, and those who persevered have gone on to create

the true “virtual” community that exists there today.

Today’s ISH, however, is not recognized as such by either the

government or the growing number of firms that see the considerable

potential for profit therein. They envision a global network

that is more accessible to everyday Americans; one that would

spew cable television, home shopping, and other forms of “entertainment”

into living rooms nationwide. They call it the National Information

Infrastructure, yet another policy-wonk PR pitch designed

to sound “official”. Self-appointed Info-Czar Al Gore

is busily courting the very corporations that can make this

vision a reality: the cable television and telephone providers.

It’s no coincidence that these two industries share the distinctive

advantage of owning the wires that already protrude into our living

rooms.

It is here that the highway metaphor so commonly used meets its

unfortunate end. Unlike our interstate highway system, the ISH

is not going to be built, maintained or paid for by the federal

government; they simply can’t afford the trillions of dollars

required to connect the existing network “backbone”

to every home in America. This, of course, leaves the private

sector.

In order to garner the appeal (and checkable deposits) of the

new info-consumer, the Net will need to become “user-friendly”

and otherwise non-threatening to the average American consumer,

that marketplace denizen still struggling with setting its VCR

clock. The Net’s character-based command-line interface will

be replaced by a graphical one a la Microsoft Windows, a comfortable,

glossy veneer that conceals hobbled functionality. We’ll be taught

how to navigate the Net by neo-hacker wanna-be’s like our pals

at the Times who think that using words with “cyber-”

in them a lot makes them sound hip, or that you can surf the Net

by pointing-and-clicking.

All of this leaves me cringing, for I know that the privatization

of the Net will proceed something like this: The FCC will give

its blessing to huge joint ventures by cable, phone, and software

corporations, necessary due to the capital-intensive nature of

wiring America. These firms will spend gobs of money on fiber-optic

cable and black boxes to connect us to the Net. In return, and

quite predictably, they will expect us to actually use it. They

won’t care how, or why, or doing what, so

long as every household is sending in that monthly check. This

will require that the new media target the largest possible consumer

base in order to maximize profits. This bottom line will require

“mass appeal” for the product itself.

If the print, radio and television media have taught us anything,

it’s that the result will be a trillion dollar, high-tech, cutting-edge

way to get more crap on your TV. For the purveyors of the ISH

to require the consumer to solely foot the massive bill for its

construction would result in prohibitive connection fees, and

thereby sharply limit the market. A far better (read: more profitable)

option for them is to provide access that most Americans can afford,

and seek revenues via advertising. Although this is quite the

norm in television (including in varying degrees cable, public,

AND broadcast TV), it might be less well-received by those computer

users who use their systems as more than pricey video games.

Whatever else the ISH eventually carries to our doors, you can

be sure that it will include the latest digitized Coca-Cola jingles

and this weeks hot fashion tips from The Bon.

Additionally, the content of the new digital media will

be profit-driven, thereby assuring that it will be rife with what

we want most: tits and guns. Why offer a wealth of information

and dialog if the public, weaned on Rosanne and Melrose Place,

doesn’t want it? Of course there will be interest in other,

perhaps educational, options as well, but to what degree? Television

networks such as PBS and The Discovery Channel are experiencing

dwindling viewer ship, and have responded with increased ratings-oriented

programming. Jacques Cousteau and Wild Kingdom are

giving way to W.W.II docu-dramas, Bigfoot sightings, and slow-motion

footage of dismayed herbivores, unceremoniously reassigned to

the next slot on the food chain: Lunch.

Pessimistic but pragmatic, I can only hope that the real Net,

still mostly devoid of crumpled McDonald’s wrappers and other

free-market debris, will remain the vibrant, thoughtful community

that it is. For many, it just might. Let TCI offer 500 cable

channels and interactive Mortal Kombat. I’ll keep my modem and

the command prompt, and hope they never find a way lock the back

door.

I wrote this in 1993 when the net was just starting to catch on. It’s pretty dated by this point, but much of the changes I predicted have already taken place. As for the others, well, it’s only a matter of time.