Cyberspace And The American Dream: A Magna Carta For The Knowledge Age

Cyberspace and the American Dream: A Magna Carta for the Knowledge Age


This statement represents the cumulative wisdom and innovation of many dozens of

people.  It is based primarily on the thoughts of four "co-authors": Ms.  Esther

Dyson; Mr. George Gilder; Dr. George Keyworth; and Dr. Alvin Toffler.  This

release 1.2 has the final "imprimatur" of no one.  In the spirit of the age: It

is copyrighted solely for the purpose of preventing someone else from doing so.

If you have it, you can use it any way you want.  However, major passages are

from works copyrighted individually by the authors, used here by permission;

these will be duly acknowledged in release 2.0.  It is a living document.

Release 2.0 will be released in October 1994. We hope you'll use it is to tell

us how to make it better.  Do so by:


(The Progress & Freedom Foundation is a not-for-profit research and educational

organization dedicated to creating a positive vision of the future founded in

the historic principles of the American idea.)


Preamble


The central event of the 20th century is the overthrow of matter. In technology,

economics, and the politics of nations, wealth -- in the form of physical

resources -- has been losing value and significance. The powers of mind are

everywhere ascendant over the brute force of things.


In a First Wave economy, land and farm labor are the main "factors of

production." In a Second Wave economy, the land remains valuable while the

"labor" becomes massified around machines and larger industries. In a Third Wave

economy, the central resource -- a single word broadly encompassing data,

information, images, symbols, culture, ideology, and values -- is actionable

knowledge.


The industrial age is not fully over. In fact, classic Second Wave sectors (oil,

steel, auto-production) have learned how to benefit from Third Wave

technological breakthroughs -- just as the First Wave's agricultural

productivity benefited exponentially from the Second Wave's farm-mechanization.


But the Third Wave, and the Knowledge Age it has opened, will not deliver on its

potential unless it adds social and political dominance to its accelerating

technological and economic strength. This means repealing Second Wave laws and

retiring Second Wave attitudes. It also gives to leaders of the advanced

democracies a special responsibility -- to facilitate, hasten, and explain the

transition.


As humankind explores this new "electronic frontier" of knowledge, it must

confront again the most profound questions of how to organize itself for the

common good. The meaning of freedom, structures of self-government, definition

of property, nature of competition, conditions for cooperation, sense of

community and nature of progress will each be redefined for the Knowledge Age --

just as they were redefined for a new age of industry some 250 years ago.


What our 20th-century countrymen came to think of as the "American dream," and

what resonant thinkers referred to as "the promise of American life" or "the

American Idea," emerged from the turmoil of 19th-century industrialization.  Now

it's our turn: The knowledge revolution, and the Third Wave of historical change

it powers, summon us to renew the dream and enhance the promise.


The Nature of Cyberspace


The Internet -- the huge (2.2 million computers), global (135 countries),

rapidly growing (10-15% a month) network that has captured the American

imagination -- is only a tiny part of cyberspace. So just what is cyberspace?


More ecosystem than machine, cyberspace is a bioelectronic environment that is

literally universal: It exists everywhere there are telephone wires, coaxial

cables, fiber-optic lines or electromagnetic waves.


This environment is "inhabited" by knowledge, including incorrect ideas,

existing in electronic form. It is connected to the physical environment by

portals which allow people to see what's inside, to put knowledge in, to alter

it, and to take knowledge out. Some of these portals areThis is ONLY a preview of the article. If you would like to view the entire document, you must subscribe to Electronic References. Please register below now!


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