And the word was made flesh...
Demands on a humane information society
The emotions with which people react
to the beginnings of the so-called information society range from
euphoria to outrage. As understandable as the individual emotional
reaction may be, we should not give credence to its rightness.
In this paper I would like to look at the ”Informationsmaschine
Mensch” and its embeddedness in society, not with uncritical,
optimistic exaggeration, nor with an attitude bespeaking a despair
of civilization; rather I will avail myself of methods taken from
the realm of social and cultural sciences with the aim of evaluating
the current trend. What age are we living in? What main trends
can we discern? What central problems are emerging? What trends
can we expect?
”Valuable” science?
Such a description, however, obviously
cannot be objective, but must always be meshed with one's own
wishes and hopes - in my case the wish for peace and co-operative
co-existence, for conditions that really deserve to be called
”humane”, for living conditions in which a man to a
man is not like a wolf. This expression of my personal feelings
serves as a compass and a guiding principle for a scientific analysis
of the present that is bound by certain methodical standards but
from which no particular ethical stance can be derived. That
brings us to a core problem of contemporary science that is outwardly
unbiased but which, in so being, becomes accessible for all manner
of misuse. The first step to be taken by humane science should
thus be expressly to disclose its underlying system of values.
So let us take a look at our world with
this in mind. Looking to the rich nations of the Earth, the great
significance of technological innovations is clearly illustrated.
They have advanced to become the key factors of international
business competition. No longer are hoards of gold, physical labour
or raw materials the foundations of wealth but rather the ability
to hold one's own and dominate the world market with new technological
means on a global scale. Although the industrial revolution of
the previous century represented an unprecedented thrust of virtuoso
handling of Nature and natural materials under capitalist conditions,
capable of multiplying the productivity of human labour by a factor
of between ten and more than one hundred, it not only brought
incredible wealth but also undreamt-of poverty upon large sections
of the human race, farmers, craftsmen and workers. Personal social
predicaments became a breeding-ground for the dissemination of
racist anti-Semitic inhuman ideologies, guided by politicians,
that were to lead to the great disasters of this century, two
world wars and mass murder.
Technology as a bringer of salvation
The ambivalence of technological innovations,
amplified by the social order, is not only revealed in 20th-century
disaster scenarios but is also expressed in chronic problems of
global dimensions. These are not least the result of the sweeping
success and fast diffusion of applied natural science on a global
scale. Human intervention in natural cycles has caused the greenhouse
effect and the hole in the ozone layer, ground-level ozone and
radioactive contamination, leading to an imperilment to the fundamental
conditions of human life on our planet; the promotion of the economic
advance of the First World pushed ahead by the new technologies
is creating social inequality in the Second and Third Worlds (which
are in the process of dissolving into so-called ”Reformstaaten”
or former Eastern bloc countries). This inequality is worming
its way into the affluent metropolises of the world in the form
of slums. Entire societies are endangered by their dependence
on the omnipresence of new technology, without which they cannot
exist. I do not just mean the atomic bomb or civil nuclear technology,
I mean the whole banal dependence of our viability on electricity,
telephones, computers and electronic networks.
The most recent progress of technology,
the emergence of electronic information and communication technologies,
is reflected in statements made by leading politicians and business
magnates of the countries of the triad (NAFTA, EU and Japan).
They all stress the necessity of a global, trans-continental or
national information infrastructure with the aid of which we could
construct a new society, the information society. It would create
the necessary jobs that have dwindled in recent decades along
with the branches and remnants of industrialized society. All
levels of the population would be able to benefit from the information
society. The drastically reduced costs of information, communication
and organisation would allow us to create a democratic society
with little hierarchy in which there would be no room for exclusion.
Difference of race, class, social stratum, sex, disability would
all be concealed behind the computer screen, and the ideal of
human equality and democracy could emerge the world over.
Historically, we can observe an inner
kinship with statements made at the beginning of this century
in which the Russian revolution evokes the humanizing effect of
electrical energy with the slogan ”Communism is Soviet power
plus the electrification of the whole country” (Lenin 1920:
513). The aspirations of the French Revolution for the blessings
of burgeoning natural science can also be compared to contemporary
politico-economic rhetoric. Technology is regarded as being the
solver of all societal problems and a carrier of the hopes for
paradisiac conditions.
Current problem areas
No matter how much my personal wishes
coincide with the opinions of Euro-politicians, a methodical restriction
is called for. As suggested by the above examples, new technologies
cannot have a humanizing effect per se. They merely offer an extended
field of opportunities for social or personal development. Only
their embeddedness in society will determine what particular paths
will be taken from the range offered. In order to realise a specific
potential inherent in a new technology it is first necessary to
surmount various obstacles, first and foremost the politico-economic,
then the social and the cultural. And that's the crux of the matter.
In the name of deregulation, the state
is currently gradually passing on traditional monopolies and substantial
former activities to private enterprises, on the one hand for
reasons of inefficiency and excessive costs, and on the other
because it maintains that public services can no longer be financed.
This procedure certainly makes sense in a society in which the
wealth of all individuals has greatly increased and in which services
can easily be financed from the high incomes of private households.
In a society of growing social differences and exclusion, deregulation
can also lead to increased disintegration. Although a deregulated
economy offers greater scope of action for the individual enterprise,
although the strategic scope can be expanded vis-à-vis
national and international rivals, and-as is the case with the
release of electronic networks and phone services-because we can
expect to see Internet charges drop, the national job cutback
due to rationalisation and outsourcing bears no balanced relation
to the number of jobs that could be created through tele-work
and innovative products (under the same economic conditions).
The social decline of large sections of the population in the
emerging two thirds society annuls the central precondition for
a meaningful strategy of deregulation. Quite the reverse, it necessitates
greater commitment by the state to cushion this socially unacceptable
situation for a growing minority if society is not to be driven
into a decline characterised by desperate individual predicaments,
clashes over financial, intellectual and material resources, increased
crime, racism, anti-Semitism and anti-women attitudes.
Requirements for a humane information
society
If real construction of the information
society is to succeed, at least three preconditions must be fulfilled.
First, the appropriate infrastructure must be created; second,
this infrastructure must provide universal access for men and
women; third, it must be possible to acquire qualifications allowing
us to use the electronic networks. The order of this list of requirements
is important. Fulfilling the preceding item is the precondition
for being able to fulfil the next. If even just one of these prerequisites
is missing, there will be a danger of further division of society
already torn by differences of class and stratum.
a. Is the electronic infrastructure
sufficient?
As we know, especially in Austria the
info-highway has not yet been built up so adequately as to provide
a sufficient communication infrastructure. Essentially, today's
users have two grievances: firstly, phone charges are still too
high (40 Austrian Schillings per hour) for less wealthy private
individuals, above all young or old people, to take advantage
of the Internet or other services without it being an excessive
financial burden; secondly, the frequency range of existing lines
is still fairly low with the effect that graphic images and videos
can only be transmitted in poor quality and after prolonged waiting
times. However, a development is emerging with regard to the former
that is highly likely to bring about a considerable reduction
of charges. The Post Office is expected to reduce charges for
data transmissions to 10 Austrian Schillings per hour as of Autumn
1997-in anticipation of future rival services that will be set
up according to EU law as of 1st
January 1998 when the state monopoly on phone calls ceases to
apply.
At the same time, other clusters of companies
are waiting to enter the marketplace as network providers. The
biggest cable TV company, Telekabel, will provide former TV consumers
with a permanent Internet link via its private network with the
aid of a few relatively inexpensive add-ons, at a fraction of
previous costs. The Austrian Federal Railways and the electric
supply companies (both with nation-wide cable lines) will also
take advantage of the needs of the moment and offer their infrastructure
on the market. So we can expect to see electronic network connection
charges drop rapidly due to competition and increased demand.
What is more, in a few years' time international
syndicates will have low-flying earth satellites (IRIDIUM with
77 satellites, Bill Gates' TELEDISC with allegedly in excess of
800 satellites, INMARSAT with slightly higher-lying 12 satellites,
and finally GLOBALSTAR, favoured by the EU, with 48 planned artificial
satellites are in planning) (Ege/Fleissner 1995: 27). Basically,
the network of the future should be accessible at reasonable prices
and should possess the necessary frequency range. Within its ACTS
programme (Advanced Communication Technologies and Services),
the EU is planning to create the conditions for an extremely fast
electronic infrastructure for the information society, above all
on the basis of photon technologies in glass fibre lines (Fabianek
et al 1997: 54). The first field trials are already underway and
are planned to venture into frequency ranges of 40 gigabits per
second, i.e. roughly 300 times faster than current Post Office
lines with 155 megabits or 34 megabits per second (Fleissner et
al 1996: 258-259).
It can be safely assumed that the necessary
infrastructure will no longer be made available by the state as
a monopolist provider-as has been the case in the last one hundred
years-but rather by competing private companies. But the state
should not withdraw completely. It will still be urgently needed
to formulate and monitor technological standards and adequate
quality of services; what is more, the state-who else-must ensure
fair access conditions and blanket supply so as to avoid any blank
areas on the network map.
b. Universal access?
In order to obtain a realistic assessment
of the extent to which electronic networks are actually used it
is helpful to take a look at the empirical structure of the users.
In Austria there are no precise data. The number of users will
probably be something like 300,000, the vast majority being students
and teaching staff at universities, public administration and
major software and hardware company employees. So far, proportionately,
private households have been of secondary significance. Going
by that, around five per cent of the Austrian population is currently
on the net (1997). The trend is rising, and with costs dropping
and frequency ranges expanding private PC owners (supposedly around
a quarter of all private Austrian households own a computer) will
increasingly start buying modems and net connections.
In the United States, the pioneer in
all things connected with electronic networks, this trend towards
mass private use can already be evidenced empirically. The dynamism
in this case is very much akin to the telephone. Where once the
telephone was limited to the world of business, it soon spread
as a medium of family communication for gossipmongering between
members of local neighbourhoods, above all farmer's wives, in
big cities and small towns across America (Flichy 1994: 152).
This, then, was the foundation stone of mass, i.e. profitable,
use. It would seem that this story is now being repeated with
the Internet in the US. According to an empirical American study
by Control Data (1995), the main focus of Internet use, at least
in terms of email, was initially in the public sector. 83 per
cent of employees of public facilities used email, compared to
only 62 per cent of private company employees (CONSUME 1995).
At the beginning of 1996 it was discerned that 63 per cent of
all users were using the net for work at home (cf. http://etrg.findsvp.com/internet/demograph.html),
and that 69 per cent have an Internet link at home (only 48% at
work and 21% at school). In the US we are hearing reports of a
boom among senior citizens. As net connections spread through
the general public, the average age is increasing more slowly
(26 at the beginning of 1996), a fact corroborated by the higher
percentage of women, 35 per cent. The average income of Internet
users is $ 61,500, i.e. in the high-income bracket, which is also
backed up by the large percentage of white participants, 83 per
cent. We can expect to see the average income drop, whereas the
percentage of women and the average age will continue to rise.
Various results that correspond to the
previous conditions in the US can be found in Germany (see <http://www.w3b.de>
for latest survey results). In 1996 the percentage of schoolgoers
(5.8%), students (29.8%), graduate students studying for doctorate
(5.1%), and public officials (3.9%) totalled 45 per cent of the
overall Internet clientele, while employees made up 36 per cent.
Self-employed persons made up 13 per cent. 45 per cent of all
accesses were via university or school, 38 per cent via the employer.
At 17 per cent, private access was still fairly low. The usual
statement that the Internet is chiefly used by people with a high
level of education is also reflected in the German survey: 78.4
per cent of users had A-levels (Abitur) in 1996. The relation
between the sexes is still distorted in favour of men, although
the trend is dropping (FRG: 1995 94%, 1996 91% percentage of men).
In Germany, the average age has increased from 29 (1995) to 30
(1996).
So we can hardly speak of universal access
to the Internet in Germany and Austria, as is the case with television
and, to a great extent, with the telephone.
There are also considerable disparities
on a global scale. The main activity of electronic networking
is taking place in the major American metropolises, followed by
European and Japanese cities and their links. Africa and Latin
America are practically blank areas on the global map. So McLuhan's
buzzword of the ”global village” (McLuhan 1995) will
have to wait a while before it becomes reality (only 10 per cent
of net users lived in the country in the US at the start of 1996,
the majority was located in cities or their immediate surround-ings).
c. Higher education or reduced demands?
Even if costs are reduced and even if
user friendliness is considerably enhanced, the education barrier
will still be a selection factor favouring the highly-qualified,
young and wealthy of this world. There would appear to be two
paths to widening net access that are not necessarily mutually
exclusive. The first is to reduce the qualifications needed to
use net technologies, the second, by reverse, would be to put
higher qualifications within the reach of larger sections of the
population. Strategies in the vein of the first path would include
striving to expand broadband networks in connection with compression
technologies or, as an alternative, developing software for easy,
safe money transfer in combination with simple searching and ordering
facilities on the net. On the one hand, by means of video on demand
or interactive virtual reality (electronically mediated encounter
between people in virtual space), allowing three-dimensional navigation
with the aid of 3D glasses or a head mounted display), the net
would be brought into line with television entertainment services,
while on the other it would be opened up for mass electronic trade.
So the first path could greatly enlarge the demand for net services.
But entertainment and commerce are not
the only possible factors for extending use of the net. The second
strategy, that proceeds on the basis of increasing the qualifications
of the population, would also have the advantage of intensifying
the flow of fountains of wealth and culture. There is no limit
to the possibilities. I am not just thinking about increasing
vocational qualifications (which would above all serve the business
world), but also the good old notion of education that was closely
linked with humanity. Particularly in an age in which the isolation
of the individual is becoming more and more frequent as an empirical
phenomenon, in which we hear about increased competition and growing
desolidarisation, educational measures would indeed be very important.
They could help create a climate characterised by tolerance, co-operation,
harmonious and peaceful human relations, in which curiosity and
creativity are promoted. On this basis it would be possible to
make more humane the new electronic spaces opened up for us by
technology, cyberspace and hypertexts, multi-user dungeons and
Internet relay chats, the multimedia facilities and video on demand
and to fill them with humanity, not least for the commercial benefit
of companies and to the advantage of society as a whole on its
way towards a sustainable development, without pogroms or wars.
Fulfilling the aforementioned demands in terms of infrastructure,
accessibility and qualifications is the minimum requirement for
a humane information society. However, we must be careful. Even
the very best infrastructure setting offers no guarantee that
negative traits will not force their way to the fore. Central
monitoring, authoritarian governments, racist legislation - essentially,
everything is possible with the aid of modern networks. Only humane
social policy on as wide an international footing as possible
will make it possible to utilise these technological structures
in such as way as to contribute to general public welfare.
Where does this fascination come from?
So far, I have opted for a viewpoint
that takes into account rational human behaviour. But can such
a viewpoint suffice? Doesn't such an approach to the world that
is based upon logical human considerations soon lose sight of
the world of emotions, yearnings and hopes? Do these sentences,
ailing from the colourlessness of thought, say it all? The media
environment says otherwise. Full of euphoria the mass media are
picking up on the first steps in the implementation of hyperspace
with neologisms such as information superhighway, teleworking,
teleshopping and telebanking. The fascination of the mass media
and the general public with this subject, I feel, cannot be explained
by means of economic or political motives alone. I suspect that
this fascination with electronic networks is driven by some historico-cultural
force that, despite all modern science, is still fed by the Christian
mythical awareness of the developed world in connection with a
particular type of personality, the narcissistic personality.
This driving force is taking on a more concrete form in an age
in which human society on this planet is in an existential crisis
and that is thus more susceptible to change (but also to polarization)
than ever before. The self-release of the human being from actual
and imagined dependencies is reaching a new level. Our survival
is not only endangered by the success of traditional industrial
mechanical, chemical and electrical technologies. Today man's
identity is under debate in two concrete respects, on the one
hand as a result of genetic engineering that tamper with the natural
biological outfit of the human being and, on the other, due to
the new information technologies that are beginning to call into
question man's status and self-esteem as the only living being
endowed with intelligence and the capacity for thought.
In view of these problems we will see
wishes washed up to the surface of society and made practically
viable, with all the illusions connected with them, wishes that
to date were impossible to fulfil. A process of implementation
of religious fantasies in day-to-day human life is being continued,
a process that originated in the appearance of markets and money.
The Last Judgement is becoming the present in the market, the
good are rewarded, the bad punished. In money, the divine power
descends to Earth and lives among us, a power that according to
Feuerbach (first edition, quoted from 1957: 371) is a fantastic
expression of the human being and, according to Marx and Engels
(1845: quoted from 1971: 27), of Man the social being. So anyone
can have a bit of divinity in his wallet, i.e. the potential of
human activity that can be updated through work. Cyberspace and
the electronic networks provide food for other notions of God's
attributes - that of omniscience and omnipresence. With that -
taking into account all the ambivalence of this comparison - the
words of the serpent in the first book of Moses are fulfilled
when it promises Man in paradise: ”You will be like God”
(Gen. 3:5). Unfortunately, all of God's attributes have not come
down to Earth yet. Wisdom, mercy and love have yet to come.
Literature
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für Management, No. 4, 1995: 26-27
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A. Houghton: Optical Network Research and Development in European
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Feuerbach, L.: Das Wesen des Christentums,
Reclam, Leipzig 1957
Fleissner, P., W. Hofkirchner, H. Müller,
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de la Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris 1996
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die Tätigkeit des Rats der Volkskommissare, 22. Dezember
1920, in: Lenin, W. I., Werke, Band 31, Dietz Verlag, Berlin
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McLuhan, M., B. R. Powers, The Global
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Oxford: University Press, 1989
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