Week 2 — Free Flow (drinks) Information

▶ DIGC202 GLOBAL NETWORKS

Don’t be fooled by the title, honestly when I first heard those 3 words together (free flow information); I instantly thought of free flow drinks. I mean it make sense considering the meaning behind free flow information is just to have information running freely — having free flow drinks means exactly the same (just substitute the information for drinks).

Image taken from Metropolis Magazine

Cyberspace, what is cyberspace? It can be anything and everything you want actually — it really doesn’t matter. Just keep in mind that information floats all around cyberspace and that it is free flow information. I guess one way to conceptualize cyberspace is to try and see it as a… chameleon! Chameleon’s change their scales and skin to match their surroundings and they constantly do that all the time — cyberspace is forever in a constant state of change; things will be added, removed, expanded, created and defined (Dyson, Gilder, Keyworth, & Toffler 1994). The whole purpose of cyberspace is to be able to have a world where everything and everyone is equal, no one has special privileges, no one has higher or lower economic power than another; basically everyone is at the same level (Barlow 2018). Imagine living in a world with no limits and no rules, that would be a trip!

In technology, economics, and the politics of nations, wealth — in the form of physical resources — has been losing value and significance.

(Dyson, Gilder, Keyworth, & Toffler 1994)

When I first read this quote I instantly agreed with it, I realised how much stuff is being sent and received through the online world and how more convenient it is to do so. But then it hit me (not literally), although in the far future I can envision that there may or may not be robots and ‘flying’ cars — physical resources still play a part that is significant. How else would you be able to meet up with that friend you’re talking to through text? Transportation is still something that exists and something we definitely still need to use, even if the year is 3009; transportation will most likely still be in use — just in other forms — maybe, possibly teleportation! You still need physical resources in order for that to work!

References:

1. Barlow, John Perry. “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.” Electronic Frontier Foundation, 8 Apr. 2018, https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence.
2. Dyson, Esther F., et al. Cyberspace and the American Dream: a Magna Carta for the Knowledge Age. Progress & Freedom Foundation, 1994, http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/futureinsights/fi1.2magnacarta.html.