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The Internet as Utopia: An Overview of the Debate

Villemard "Chantier de construction électrique" [Electric Construction Site] Visions de l'an 2000, 1910 Chromolithograph BNF, Département des Estampes et de la Photographie*

In the ongoing search for the ideal society, the Internet has been proposed as a "place" in which a utopia could exist. Parallels to previous notions of utopian thought are discussed in "Cyber-Utopianism" and the Evolution in Utopian Thought. Despite these comparisons, there has been a heated debate on the question of whether the Internet qualifies as a utopia: some argue that it is or should be considered as a possible utopia; others regard it as purely a new form of communications technology and not the basis of an ideal "place" or "community"; still others perceive it to be dystopic, or anything but ideal, as a real or potential threat to man and society.

 

Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Ours is a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live. We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth.

We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity. …We believe that from ethics, enlightened self-interest, and the commonweal, our governance will emerge.

-- from John Perry Barlow, "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace," available at the website of the Electric Frontier Foundation, 1996

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Proponents of the Internet have contended that with nothing more than access to a computer, modem, and ISP, users can freely create and participate in a community unbounded by the physical limitations of time, space, and being. The unprecedented personal freedom, unrestricted access, and varied modes of communication and communities that this metaworld affords all contribute to the Internet’s consideration as a "place" where a utopia, no longer imaginary or remote but not physically substantive, can be constructed and inhabited.

Those who contend that the Internet is not a utopia argue that a digitally networked world does not provide the elements necessary to create an ideal community. Some consider the Internet to be simply the latest progression in communications technology, and not a revolutionary mechanism that has enabled metaphysical transformations and communities composed of "virtual" identities.

many times in cyberspace i felt it necessary to say that i was human. once, i was told that i existed primarily as a voice in somebody's head. From humdog, "pandora's vox: on community in cyberspace." In: High Noon on the Electronic Frontier: Conceptual Issues in Cyberspace, 1996

Others consider the Internet to be decidedly dystopic in nature: the perverse melding of real and simulated; the realm of an electronically connected elite made vulnerable by individuals — fanatics, predators, spammers, cybersquatters, and hackers — not to mention businesses, governments, and other organizations. Big Brother — in the form of governments, corporations, employers, teachers, and parents — is indeed watching and controlling access to information and people on the Internet. All these factors have contributed to concerns that the Internet is at best commercial and propagandistic but quite possibly illusory and subversive, or even dehumanizing and life-threatening.

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To provide a forum to continue this debate, this portion of the website includes provocative and informative comments from scholars and experts on the following questions:

Of the utopias that have been conceived -- in theory, in literature, in reality, on the Internet -- which do you find the most appealing, and why? Of the dystopias that have been conceived, which do you find the most terrifying or unpleasant, and why?

Is an ideal "community" made up of virtual identities worth calling a utopia? Is humanity necessary to the creation of a utopian place? Does the Internet provide a "place" where a utopian community can be created? Why or why not?

How has the notion of one's self or identity, one's self in relation to others, what we consider reality, and consequently what we consider a utopia changed with the advent of the Internet? What does it mean in a larger context to have a virtual existence?

Past utopias have addressed the issues of inclusion and exclusion, equality and stratification, both within the community and between the community and the rest of the world. Is the Internet the great equalizer, or does it promote stratification both within itself and among people in the real world?

Is the polarization of opinion about the Internet a factor of time: will perception and discussion of it as either a utopia or dystopia cease when the novelty of the technology wears off?

Additional comments on how the Internet has changed notions of community, identity, and privacy.

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