Imagining the Internet

Personalities, Predictions, Perspectives

Janna Quitney Anderson

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2005
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780742568662
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Science General
• Index: Biological Sciences

In the early 1990s, people predicted the death of privacy, an end to the current concept of "property," a paperless society, 500 channels of high-definition interactive television, world peace, and the extinction of the human race after a takeover engineered by intelligent machines. Imagining the Internet zeroes in on predictions about the Internet's future and revisits past predictions-and how they turned out-to put that imagined future in perspective. Interlaced with revealing analysis, this compendium of thoughts from stakeholders and skeptics, from George Orwell, Marshall McLuhan, and Isaac Asimov to Bill Gates, Bruce Sterling, Nicholas Negroponte, Al Gore, and many others, combines history and biography with future visions and a look at the social, political, and economic consequences of new communication technology. It also gives the history of communications in a nutshell, illustrating the serious impact of pervasive networks and how they will change our lives over the next century.

Visit www.elon.edu/predictions/ to view a comprehensive database that forms the investigative basis for this book.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword - Prescient predictors’ statements enrich us all on many levels; share your vision, too
• Introduction - Why it is important for you to understand networks and their influence in history and your life
• 1 - The Internet at the Forefront
• 2 - From Bonfires and Bongos to the Web
• 3 - Web Gems
• 4 - The “Highway” Metaphor
• 5 - Knocking the Net
• 6 - Saddam, O.J., and the Unabomber
• 7 - Nothing Is Certain but Death and Taxes
• 8 - Aristotle, Jefferson, Marx, and McLuhan
• 9 - Supporters Crow About “500 Channels!” Everyone Warns About “Infoglut”
• 10 - Voices of the Net
• 11 - The Threat to Freedom, to the Earth
• 12 - The Future of Networks
• 13 - Nobody Knows You’re a Dog
• 14 - Hmmm ... Will It Happen?
• Appendix A: Wired Inspired - The incredible influence of a pulp-based product
• Appendix B: Recording the Data - Compiling the Internet predictions found in this book
• Suggested Readings - Readings for more on the history of the Internet
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author