Villemard "Une Curiosité" [A Curiosity] Visions de l'an 2000, 1910 Chromolithograph * BNF, Département des Estampes et de la Photographie

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?

Benjamin Barber (Rutgers University)

Novelty is part of the problem. Similar debates to the one being conducted here were offered at the time of the birth of the telegraph, the telephone, radio, television and cable. We always think our technologies will become the instruments of our transformation – but more often we end up (Thoreau's phrase) as tools of our tools.

Francesco Battisti (University of Cassino)

The Internet is not a danger, but neither is the replacement of human life. An adequate interface between virtuality and reality is needed in order to make information and telecommunication technologies useful and meaningful to people. That means that what is virtual can become real. If I am ordering a virtual pizza in electronic commerce, it is because I would like to receive the real one. As far as ideas, expectations, emotions, intentions will come from real people and represent a true expression of human beings, what is made by the Internet will represent a meaningful utopia for ourselves.

Robert Fogarty (Antioch College)

We will begin to take it for granted and, over time, we will find it as comfortable and vexing as the telephone. We now take the stirrup for granted and few remember how much it changed warfare.

James Gunn (University of Kansas)

Yes.

Naomi Jacobs (University of Maine)

Yes, probably so, just as earlier technologies like the telephone and television that were originally seen to have utopian potential are now taken for granted as mundane tools.

Ruth Levitas (University of Bristol)

I hope so. The utopian and dystopian possibilities of the Internet, like all technologies, depend much more on the social relations in which it is embedded than on the technology itself. A decent society depends on the development of a transformative politics, committed to sustainability, justice and democracy. Those politics will probably involve using the Net, as will the forces of reaction (read Marge Piercy’s He, She & It [1991]She and It!).

Elizabeth McCutcheon (University of Hawaii)

I am sure that discussion will change; I don't know that it will cease, but, perhaps the polarization will be less evident as people become clearer about what the Internet can and can't do. We continue to discuss orality vs. literacy, the technology of print and its impact on the world, the value and problems of television, etc. And old problems can become new again. At this moment in Hawaii the question of an oral culture (like the traditional Hawaiian one) versus a culture that privileges writing and individual rather than group learning (20th century America) is much debated.

Timothy Miller (University of Kansas)

Since the Internet is first and foremost a tool, it will eventually settle into human consciousness as just that. Like radio, the automobile, television, and any number of other technological advances, it will become, for better or worse, a part of everyday life and will not be seen as inherently utopian or dystopian.

Raymond Polin (St. John's University)

What has happened with television can serve as a guide concerning future attitudes toward and use of the Internet; but only a limited guide because the TV viewer has not been part of a more individualized and more interactive process – and more quickly so – such as the Internet has been from its inception. It will continue to be viewed as a mixed blessing, as we regard the automobile, but we shall increasingly use and rely on it, especially as not only our children but also our grandchildren come online (one of ours at three years of age), to supplement and combine with the telephone. We shall increasingly use and rely on it and take it so much for granted that we shall regard it as almost an extension of ourselves – of our eyes, ears, and mind – much as we drive an auto almost automatically. So our opinion of the Internet should become increasingly more favorable, but I expect we shall regard it not as a utopia to escape to or a source from which a utopia will in time emerge, but mostly as a wonderfully useful source of information and amusement. Those who view it negatively will do so only in limited respects and degrees, especially as it becomes easier to use and therefore more satisfying and enjoyable to use. There is presently much frustration and resultant anger about the Internet as it now works – or does not. It will be judged more favorably after immensely more consumer testing and input reduces the road rage of users now stymied by the shortcomings of those now designing our hardware and software and online answers. Libraries especially need to become more user-friendly (the Library of Congress is deficient and derelict, as one example; and Telnet is presently an abominable example; but, happily, CATNYP is quite good, and we use it all hours).

Kenneth Roemer (University of Texas at Arlington)

It's a factor of time and access. If there is much wider access to the Internet, then the polarization in opinion about it will decrease.

Dan Sabia (University of South Carolina)

I am inclined to the view that the polarization of opinion regarding the Internet will decline as the novelty of the technology wears off. Like other technological innovations that have had significant, large-scale, social consequences, the many effects directly and indirectly produced by the Internet will probably prove to be a mixture of good and bad. On the other hand, if one had to choose between the two, the more likely result is that the Internet will increase ongoing processes of inequality, secularism, materialism, the centralization of power and wealth, and social fragmentation and individual alienation, rather than move us towards utopia.

Lyman Sargent (University of Missouri at St. Louis)

There will always be people who find their utopias in places that others find their dystopias.

Brian Stableford (Freelance Writer)

It will probably (and perhaps mistakenly) come to be taken pretty much for granted, like literacy.

Darko Suvin (McGill University)

Since technology seems to be forced down our throats ceaselessly, it is only proper to hope for ceaseless discussion of its good and (mostly) bad effects as concretely enforced.

Wilhelm Vosskamp (University of Cologne)

The discussion about the Internet is indeed time-related. The question of utopia or dystopia will cease, because there is no debate on prospective, utopian communities as social models of a better future.

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Please note: The views expressed on this page are those of the named individuals, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The New York Public Library.

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.

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