Re:JP Barlow: A Declaration of Independence for Cyberspace
by gr0nk on Tuesday January 03, 2012 @02:31PM
(#3420946)
I thought this was the coolest thing in '96. All these years later it just reads like self parody. The Internet is very much a part of the terrestrial world, and governments do possess methods of enforcement we have true reason to fear. It sucks, but grandiose proclamations don't change that.
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Re:JP Barlow: A Declaration of Independence for Cyberspace
by pnathan on Tuesday January 03, 2012 @04:06PM
(#3421291)
There was a tremendous amount of techno-utopianism in the early 90s. The internet & computers would bring peace, love, erase national borders, enable society to be utterly transformed into a global place without work, strife, etc.
Mondo 2000, early Wired, and Rushkoff were big proponents of that thought paradigm. I see Barlow's essay as an offshoot of that paradigm.
Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.
Re:JP Barlow: A Declaration of Independence for Cyberspace
by slowpoke on Tuesday January 03, 2012 @04:38PM
(#3421422)
>Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.
We're still very much at the beginning, and it's far too early to say anything like that. If at all, we've been slightly thrown back.
I still believe everything you dismissed as "techno-utopianism" to be possible one day. Social change rarely happens overnight. We have to work and fight for it.
Re:JP Barlow: A Declaration of Independence for Cyberspace
by pnathan on Tuesday January 03, 2012 @05:50PM
(#3421694)
Oh, there's a lot of possibility out there and some of it has been realized. But, unfortunately, there was a lot of ignoring human nature going on at the time. People are simply a lot grittier than the future of the time was portrayed.