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<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>CDNE Chapter 16 - The Future</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#c9e1fc" BACKGROUND="background.gif" LINK="#666666" ALINK="#ff0000" VLINK="#999999" LEFTMARGIN=24 TOPMARGIN=18>
<p align="center"><font size="2" face="Times New Roman"><b><a href="ch15web.htm"><img src="arrowleft.gif" width="45" height="54" align="absmiddle" name="ch1web.htm" border="0"></a></b><font color="#999999" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+1"><a href="mainindex.htm">INDEX</a></font><b><font color="#999999">
</font><a href="ch17web.htm"><img src="arrowright.gif" width="45" height="54" align="absmiddle" border="0"></a></b></font></p>
<p align=center></p>
<p align=center><FONT SIZE=+2 FACE="Times New Roman"> <B>Chapter 16<br>
THE FUTURE</B></FONT></p>
<table width="620" border="0" align="center">
<tr>
<td>
<p><font face="Times New Roman"><b><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">This
book's coming</font></b><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"> to
an end soon, and I should make some predictions of what we can expect
on the electronic front in the days to come. If you want a nightmarish
vision, then you could read my futuristic novel-in-progress called <i>Digitala
Dagar</i> ("Digital Days")<sup><a href="#FTNT1">(1)</a></sup>,
but this is science fiction. However, the book is relevant to what follows
- which is my personal predictions, not pure fact. Everything I write
from this point on is speculation, and since the future is always in motion,
I might reconsider the points I'm about to put forth.</font></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">The electronic universe is
actually a new world, which we call cyberspace. It is a place where small
communities of information have been allowed to exist in the state of
a sort of loosely organized anarchy. Cyberspace is in the process of becoming
civilized as it grows. Within a decade or so, everyone in this country
will have access to the Internet and be part of the electronic community,
and just like all other communities it suffers from crime and internal
conflicts. At the same time, the human factor is always present. Cyberspace
is a place occupied by people, and wherever you find people, you find
politics and culture. As a tool, the computer is unbeatable; it can construct
and visualize with a unique precision. Electronic art is not a fad, but
something we will see more and more. The musicians and painters of the
future will leave traditional methods and migrate to virtual reality and
instruments that don't exist as of yet. Motor skills and rhythm won't
be required to make music. The ability to mix colors and execute pen strokes
won't be required to make art. The only prerequisites will be imagination
and the ability to use technology - which becomes easier and easier to
use. Artists who only work with artificial worlds, <i>spacemakers</i>,
will basically be able to act as <i>gods</i> in the artificial realities
- for better and worse. (Nietzsche's statement that God is dead is frighteningly
tangible in a virtual reality). Perhaps professional artists will go away
in favor of a large number of amateurs following the introduction of advanced
technology into the mainstream.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">In early computer art, such
as demos, the computer was used like a musical instrument. Just as a guitarist
finds hidden attributes in his or her instrument when he/she finds out
it's possible to play <i>flageolets</i>, or notes affected by the physical
characteristics of the string, early computer artists found hidden potential
in their machines. This was particularly the case with the C64 and Atari
ST. Modern computer art is more a matter of constraint - in virtual reality,
<i>everything</i> is possible: it's the nightmare of the canvas. It's
easy to overdo it and become totally incoherent. </font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Like I said before, the digital
universe is just a mirror image of the "real" one. The only
thing that's really <i>strange</i> about cyberspace is the sudden <i>proximity</i>
of information and other people, and the breathtaking boost in cultural
and social evolution that this proximity causes. We hate it for its distorted
image of ourselves, reflected as if by a twisted mirror. The behavior
patterns of people are ever so obvious within the framework of a computer.
Soon, our society will be so interlinked and complex that it will become
as dependent on computers as our bodies are on a circulatory system. There
is (unfortunately?) absolutely no return. Not even now, today, can we
turn back. Our last chance to guide society away from computerization
came and went with the 50's. It's not a question of computers or not -
it's a question of how to use them.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">The new communication channels
will fundamentally change the way public opinion is formed. There will
be more responsibility on the part of the individual for sorting information.
If Swedish youth would suddenly start showing a great interest in certain
suspect publications, many people would probably react strongly to this.
There would be a public debate of the publications' agenda and opinions.We
have no control over electronic publication. No one knows the distribution
size, how many copies exist, and when a reader has viewed the paper, it's
erased from the computer's memory, leaving nothing - except new ideas,
thoughts, and opinions in the brain of the reader. The only way to find
out what a person reads electronically, is by monitoring him or her at
all times. The responsibility for forming public opinion will wholly or
partially shift <i>from</i> society and established media to the individual.
Media will have a hard time keeping track of all the interest groups that
will arise. All people will be forced to think on their own, whether they
want to or not.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">The possibility of having
an opinion without having to stand up for it is considerable. If political
discussions to a greater extent are held electronically, on the Internet
and on BBSs, it becomes virtually <i>impossible</i> to resort to personal
attacks on people with different views, since every modern conferencing
system contains the often-used option of remaining anonymous (under a
pseudonym). The rhetoric of public debate will certainly also change in
accordance with Rule #3: <i>distrust authority.</i> By extension: distrust
the entire social hierarchy. Power <i>always</i> corrupts; the fourth
state - the media - is no exception.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">The chronicling of history
won't be as geographically centered as before. It won't be possible to
say that <i>"this idea emerged in Chicago, USA, around 1997"</i>.
Maybe not even what people were involved. Ideas and social perspectives
will spread globally almost instantly. Opinions, ideologies, and innovations
of all kinds will be created in the discussion groups on the networks,
and they'll be created on a global level and by people from totally different
walks of life. Some will be CEOs, some will be thieves, some 70 years
old and some 14. The most important thing will be the ability to articulate
oneself. No one cares what you look like, where you're from, or how you
dress. Perhaps there will be a distinction between ideas that have originated
in cyberspace and those that haven't. Debates will be held between those
who are interested and seek out the discussion by themselves, not by "pundits".
The distance between debaters will become <i>purely</i> intellectual.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Social self-censorship (which
means that, for example, publications which defend the use of drugs don't
get press subsidies and are consistently resisted) doesn't exist on the
networks. Instead, it's up to the individual to decide what's right and
wrong. Instead of hiding behind an editor-in-chief, you have to stand
for what you write. This tendency is notable in the daily press, where
it's become more of a rule to sign articles.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Putting an interactive terminal
in the hands of a normal person means considerable change. At first, it's
not terribly exciting. You discover the Internet through the World Wide
Web, which isn't much more captivating than a library or a TV program.
It is one-way information for the individual, and not very interactive.
Today, the big companies and institutions largely control the World Wide
Web, even though there are brilliant exceptions. It's not too surprising
that the small amount of material that isn't commercial has been produced
either by public institutions or hackers. </font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">But then, you hopefully discover
Usenet, where you can <i>discuss</i> anything between heaven and Earth
without being spoon-fed ready-made solutions by experts. You might discover
IRC, where you can hold real-time conversations with other people from
anywhere in the world. And then you discover that you have many equals,
and even that you're an expert on many things, and that your own knowledge
is valuable. Then, things start to happen in the homes around the country.
Swedes are transformed from passive consumers to interactive world citizens,
and this is the real digital revolution. If no <i>market forces</i> (Telia,
Microsoft, etc.) succeed in stopping, commercializing, or obscuring it
before it has a chance to grow…</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">It's the case that this planet
we inhabit, Spaceship Earth, is starting to become so internationalized
that all the people aboard are starting to develop certain common values.
It's a rough, uphill ride, but it's happening everywhere. Information
technology, especially the two-way kind, will be the decidedly most important
link in a society that can stand united in Sweden and Australia as well
as in Japan and on Madagascar. This demands communication free from monopoly,
and freedom of information. I am convinced that we will find a compromise.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">A few years ago, many politicians
and sci-fi authors cautioned us about the risk that information technology
would be used to control people <i>everywhere</i>. (The examples used
included <b>Ira Levin's</b> <i>This Perfect Day</i>, <b>Karin Boyes'</b><i>
Kallocain</i>, and <b>George Orwell's</b> <i>1984</i>.) This is what organizations
like the EFF want to stop at all costs. The encryption program PGP was
created <i>just for this purpose</i>, and this gift should be considered
a social good deed. The encryption expert, Zimmerman, is maybe deserving
of the Nobel Peace Prize for his service to the protection of "healthy
disobedience".</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">When I was younger, I had
a diary with a small lock on it. Many adults have one too. Now I don't
need to lock my computer, because encryption is enough. It's in any case
much more effective than physical locks for protecting information. The
problem is that criminal investigators, for example, may very well consider
my diary part of the investigation material. I don't think so. My thoughts
belong only to me, and I'm not going to abandon them to anyone. The desire
to read other people's diaries is, in my view, just a step on the way
to the desire to read other people's thoughts. Diaries are an improvement
of one's memory, an extension of the intellect. Where is the person? In
the body, or in the diary, or both? Some diary-keeping people discover
details of their past that their brains have forgotten… <i>"My
actions occur in my body, but parts of my mind are on the bookshelf"</i>.
Yes, we're information-processing individuals, all right. And information
technology is so many times better than a library ever was at storing
and processing information.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">If you want to write anything
hidden from the mafia, the government, or your family, you should use
encryption. The possibility to erect a "firewall" against the
oversight of authorities is vital to any democracy. PGP, in one swoop,
puts humanity's collected mathematical science between you and the superior
powers. Zimmerman's crypto also allows you to set up "bug-free"
communication channels.<sup><a href="#FTNT2">(2) </a></sup>Encryption
is a fact, and I suggest that anyone who wants a bit of personal freedom
and privacy use it. I'm not going to deny that well-applied encryption
will make it impossible to stop nazi propaganda, child pornography, violent
movies, and that it can partially protect criminal syndicates. I'm split
on this issue, but I ultimately think that it's worth the price to protect
the private lives of individuals from governmental, corporate, and organizational
control. Furthermore, there's already crypto around the homes of the country.
As for me, I got my copy of PGP on a CD supplied with the magazine Mikrodatorn
(a Swedish home computing magazine), and which can be found in any well-stocked
library. No authority in the world has the possibility to decrypt information
that's been encrypted, using today's technology. Prometheus has already
stolen fire from the gods, and no one can call it back.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">I observe the changes in society
with excitement: encryption can perhaps end the <i>Pepto-bismol policies</i>
that, for example, in the case of child pornography, treat the symptoms
instead of the disease. For we all have to conclude that it's not pornography
<i>in itself</i> which is the problem, but rather that there is <i>demand</i>
for it. This, however, is a harder problem to address…</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">It wouldn't surprise me at
all if there was soon another debate about prohibition in our stuck-up
Swedish media. A debate such as the one in 1980, which started when Kulturarbetarnas
Socialdemokratiska Förening (the Social Democratic Association of
Culture Workers) wanted to prohibit TV satellite dishes in order to prevent
Swedish residents from watching unsuitable television programs. (Which,
in retrospect, looks pretty absurd). Of course - attack technology, there's
never anything wrong with people.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">The debate will naturally
be caused by something that upsets the average family: drugs, pornography,
political or religious extremists. All of this is now available on the
Internet, mostly in the form of text or pictures. Tomorrow, it'll be there
in the form of sound and motion pictures. In the future, it might be some
form of virtual reality. The U.S. Congress has <i>tried</i> to prohibit
effective crypto, and the European Union has issued directives banning
un-crackable encryption. Naturally, nothing will come of either one, at
least nothing that will be respected any more than the prohibition of,
say, jaywalking. Human nature includes an ability to resist every form
of thought control. (Or should we call it information control?)</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">If people have any sense (and
they do), they'll realize that we're dealing with international problems.
Mom and apple pie are disintegrating, and the problems of the world are
approaching from every direction. At some point, perhaps we'll realize
the need of <i>even more</i> international cooperation, and of course
it's just as difficult to keep international problems outside the EU as
it is to keep them out of Sweden. The information society grows towards
internationalization by its own force. All of this thanks to some hackers
who created ARPAnet, later to become Internet, and which interconnected
the whole world, for better or for worse. The change has just begun. It
is without doubt the most beautiful, magnificent <i>hack</i> ever executed.
The university hackers hacked down barriers between educational institutes,
then between countries, economic interests - and yes, between <i>people</i>.
Maybe I'm being a bit dramatic, but you know what I mean.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Rave culture and electronic
pop music aren't fads - we'll get more and more of them, more genres,
and we'll educate professional musicians who've never played anything
but techno music, even at public institutions. The joy and vitality of
rave culture's futuristic shows yields optimism and a belief in the future.
With luck, rave culture will become for today's youth what 60's rock was
for the baby-boomers; a symbol of rebellion, identity, and creative thinking.
And in contrast to dystopic cyberpunk and many other modern trends, it
is <i>happy and optimistic</i>, not regressive or doomsaying. The same
goes for many other forms of electronic culture, including electronic
film as well as multimedia and online culture.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">The most prominent danger
to democracy in conjunction with new technology is the risk that not <i>everyone</i>
will have access to it. In the US, almost every well-to-do middle-class
family has a computer, and even a modem. In the ghettos and industrial
suburbs, it's a pipedream. In Sweden, where the gap between classes is
not as wide as in the States, there's a marked risk that the gap will
<i>increase</i> if not <i>everyone</i> has access to computer technology.
If not, information will be available only to those who can afford it.
Remember the second rule of hacker ethics: <i>All information should be
free</i>. Internet and public computers at all the schools and libraries
around the country, even grade schools and community colleges, is a given.
A computer for each student is desirable. State subsidies for computer
equipment is a valid issue.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">I'm fully aware that I express
political opinions now, and I'm placing myself squarely against those
who think that technology, high-level jobs, etc. should be reserved for
the elite. Neither do I look up to hackers that are just out to show off
and don't care about anyone else. Following political and economic democracy,
we're now approaching a democracy of information. Information for the
people, perhaps. It's my hope that information technology will provide
the foundation for a more democratic society than we have today.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">You should think before judging
a hacker. A hacker is generally a middle-class youth who have acquired
possibilities that normally only the richest upper-class kids can revel
in, using computer technology. They've done this simply by going out there
and grabbing everything possible. Isn't this really what our whole modern,
class-based society's rules of the game are all about - that the privileged
should be able to pick and choose, but the less privileged get long sentences
if they try to get some of the goodies?</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">To categorically state that
hackers, phreakers, virus makers, or crackers are public enemies is bullshit.
It's simply pointing to superficial factors and appealing to authority.
Saying that a phreaker, taking some phone time in a fiber cable to talk
to his buddies in the States, is a thief because the law says so, is placing
100% trust in the makers of the law. It's reducing the problem to legal
text. It's a senseless oversimplification. Every law is constantly in
motion - that's how it actually works. You're one of the people that are
obligated to change the law if you realize that it is wrong. </font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Isn't the real crime of the
hacker that of challenging values and power structures that seek to distribute
influence and property unequally? For his or her own gain in the beginning,
certainly, but still. The true crime of the hacker is perhaps that he
or she has "cracked" <i>human software</i>, the social protocol
that's been programmed into out minds since birth.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">And the university hackers
- without them, we wouldn't have <i>any</i> of the computer technology
we have today. All new ideas of any worth have emerged at MIT, Stanford,
or Berkeley, by kids who've worked passionately for minimal pay and under
uncertain employment terms. And most of them haven't earned a dime of
profit from their inventions. Instead, IBM, Microsoft, and the other giants
have raked in the profits. And the hackers are not at all upset! They
think that technology - information - should belong to everyone. They
never had any commercial interests. They thought it was <i>fun!</i></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">On the pinball games at the
autonomous rave and anarchist club<b> Wapiti</b> in Lund, Sweden, the
text OBEY AUTHORITY is sarcastically displayed on the kitschy LED screens.
Man has assumed control of the machine.</font> </p>
<hr>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" color="#666666"><a name="FTNT1"></a>
1. And I'm damned if I know if I'll ever work on that project again.<br>
<br>
<a name="FTNT2"></a> 2. Currently limited to electronic mail, but a telephony
version is under development.</font></p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman"><B><BR>
</B></FONT></p>
<p align="center"><font size="2" face="Times New Roman"><b><a href="ch15web.htm"><img src="arrowleft.gif" width="45" height="54" align="absmiddle" name="ch1web.htm" border="0"></a></b><font color="#999999" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+1"><a href="mainindex.htm">INDEX</a></font><b><font color="#999999">
</font><a href="ch17web.htm"><img src="arrowright.gif" width="45" height="54" align="absmiddle" border="0"></a></b></font></p>
<p align=center> </p>
<p align=center><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="1">Design and
formatting by <a href="mailto:nirgendwo@usa.net">Daniel Arnrup</a>/<a href="http://www.voodoosystems.nu">Voodoo
Systems</a></font></p>
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