Imaginary Futures
eBook - ePub

Imaginary Futures

From Thinking Machines to the Global Village

  1. 336 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Imaginary Futures

From Thinking Machines to the Global Village

About this book

This book is a history of the future. It shows how our contemporary understanding of the Internet is shaped by visions of the future that were put together in the 1950s and 1960s. At the height of the Cold War, the Americans invented the only working model of communism in human history: the Internet. Yet, for all of its libertarian potential, the goal of this hi-tech project was geopolitical dominance: the ownership of time was control over the destiny of humanity. The potentially subversive theory of cybernetics was transformed into the military-friendly project of 'artificial intelligence'. Capitalist growth became the fastest route to the 'information society'. The rest of the world was expected to follow America's path into the networked future. Today, we're still being told that the Internet is creating the information society - and that America today is everywhere else tomorrow. Thankfully, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the DIY ethic of the Internet shows that people can resist these authoritarian prophecies by shaping information technologies in their own interest. Ultimately, if we don't want the future to be what it used to be, we must invent our own, improved and truly revolutionary future.

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Yes, you can access Imaginary Futures by Richard Barbrook in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & Political History & Theory. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
INDEX
Compiled by John Barker
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Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. 01 The Future Is What It Used To Be
  6. 02 The American Century
  7. 03 Cold War Computing
  8. 04 The Human Machine
  9. 05 Cybernetic Supremacy
  10. 06 The Global Village
  11. 07 The Cold War Left
  12. 08 The Chosen Few
  13. 09 Free Workers In The Affluent Society
  14. 10 The Prophets Of Post-Industrialism
  15. 11 The American Road To The Global Village
  16. 12 The Leader Of The Free World
  17. 13 The Great Game
  18. 14 The American Invasion Of Vietnam
  19. 15 Those Who Forget The Future Are Condemned To Repeat It
  20. References
  21. Index