From: Grant Callaghan (grantc4@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri 31 Jan 2003 - 16:26:51 GMT
From Technology Review
Dystopian visions of the future explore the power of virtual communities.
Most cultures preserve their traditions and transmit values by telling
stories about their past. Americans used to do the same, back when the
Western was perhaps our most popular genre. Yet, somewhere around the
mid-twentieth century, we began to examine our most cherished values and
deepest questions through exploring the future.
Science fiction is a genre about discontinuities rather than continuities,
change rather than tradition, and about open questions rather than
tried-and-true wisdom. It could only emerge at the moment when cycles of
cultural and technological change could be viewed within a single lifetime.
Today, the rate of change has accelerated to the point where we only need to
go “twenty minutes from now” to envision radical cultural shifts and
extraordinary technological advances.
The genre has also gone through quite a transformation in the last 80
years—a shift from gee-whiz wonderment toward an increasing dystopia; from
grand engineering enterprises to what cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling calls
“tech that sticks to the skin”; from scientific experimentation to the
social, political, economic, and cultural impact of new media. To some
degree, these changes reflect science fiction’s broadening readership. But
they also reflect a shift in how we perceive technology. No longer under the
control of the guys in the white lab coats, new tech is literally under our
skin, attached to our bodies, tossed into our backpacks.
Hugo Gernsbeck, the pulp magazine publisher widely credited with inspiring
the American strand of science fiction, saw the genre as a vehicle for
fostering broader public debate about technological change and scientific
theory. At one time, he considered printing the factual information in
italics, but then decided that allowing readers to debate what was or wasn’t
true would spark a more thoughtful audience. While people read and write
science fiction for many different reasons, the desire to speculate and
explore new theories remains central to the genre’s appeal. Writers are both
consumers and popularizers of theoretical debates.
A case in point is Global Frequency, a new comic book series by Warren
Ellis. Set in the near future, Global Frequency depicts a multiracial,
multinational organization of ordinary people who contribute their services
on an ad hoc basis. As Ellis explains, “You could be sitting there watching
the news and suddenly hear an unusual cell phone tone, and within moments
you might see your neighbor leaving the house in a hurry, wearing a jacket
or a shirt with the distinctive Global Frequency symbol...or, hell, your
girlfriend might answer the phone...and promise to explain later...Anyone
could be on the Global Frequency, and you'd never know until they got the
call.” Ellis's story responds to significant shifts in the media
environment—in particular the increasing role of mobile phones and wireless
computing—but also to speculations about their social and political impact.
It is almost as though Ellis was illustrating arguments that Howard
Rhinegold makes in his new book, Smart Mobs. As Rhinegold explains, "Smart
mobs consist of people who are able to act in concert even if they don't
know each other. The people who make up smart mobs cooperate in ways never
before possible because they carry devices that possess both communication
and computing capabilities.... Groups of people using these tools will gain
new forms of social power."
This is important stuff—a compelling new theory about political power and
social affiliation from the man who coined the term “virtual community.”
Rhinegold offers a number of examples, ranging from the "thumb tribes" in
Japan whose social life is organized around instant messaging to the
antiglobalization movement’s alternative news organizations, from the
reader-moderation on Slashdot to the use of cell phones to wage revolution
in the Philippines. Global Frequency and Smart Mobs hit the stands at almost
the same moment and compliment each other perfectly. Both help to bring
ideas from top research facilities to lay readers.
Grant
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