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Utopia
or Dystopia? The Politics of
Cyberspace
The spectacular
growth of the Internet, the fortunes that have been made,
and the astonishingly rapid development of new technological
features online have all prompted speculations about whether
we're entering a new utopian era. Others are skeptical, and
even see the new technologies as the leading edge of a
dystopian era of powerful mega-corporations, an omniscient
state, an end to privacy, and an atrophied social life. The
answer probably lies somewhere between these two extremes,
but what are the real dimensions of the future, as they are
shaped by information technologies? And what sorts of
ethical questions do we face now, or what kind of political
philosophies are emerging, because of these
technologies?
Readings
Lessig,
Chapters 14-17 (pages 188-234)
"Why the Future Doesn't Need Us," by Bill Joy, Wired magazine,
April 2000, at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy_pr.html.
"Shaping Technology
for the 'Good Life': The Technological Imperative Versus the Social
Imperative," by Gary Chapman, from Shaping
the Network Society: The New Role of Civil Society in Cyberspace,
Doug Schuler and Peter Day, eds., 2005. On E-res.
"From Utopia to Dystopia: Twin Faces of the Internet," by Debra
Howcroft and Brian Fitzgerald, on E-Res.
"The
California Ideology," Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron,
at:
http://www.arpnet.it/chaos/barbrook.htm.
"Response
to 'The California Ideology,'" Louis Rossetto, publisher
of Wired magazine.
"Rage
Against the Machine," Ronald Brownstein, Fast
Company magazine, August/September 1996, at:
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/04/politics.html
"Time
to Cast Aside Political Apathy in Favor of Creating a New
Vision for America," Gary Chapman, The Los Angeles
Times, August 19, 1996. At:
http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/21cp/Convention.html.
"Yet
More Hype," Gary Chapman, The Los Angeles Times,
August 5, 1996. At:
http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/21cp/Mungo.html.
"Informing
Ourselves to Death," Neil Postman, 1990, at:
http://www.mat.upm.es/~jcm/postman-informing.html
"Technorealism,"
at http://www.technorealism.org.
Further
optional readings:
The
Control Revolution: How the Internet is Putting
Individuals in Charge and Changing the World We
Know, Andrew L. Shapiro, PublicAffairs,
1999.
Cyberselfish:
A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian
Culture of High-Tech, Paulina Borsook,
PublicAffairs, 2000.
Resisting
the Virtual Life: The Culture and Politics of Information,
James Brook and Iain A. Boal (Editor), City Lights Books, June,
1995
War
of the Worlds: Cyberspace and the High-Tech Assault on Reality, Mark Slouka, Basic Books, 1996
The
Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of
High Technology, Langdon Winner, University of
Chicago, 1986
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