OPINION
The Clackamas Print Page 3
Wednesday, April 12,1995
SSlJPEfl INFLAMMATION HIGHWAY: f^Xype
by Patrick Lundstrom
Staff Writer
I have received several com
ments about the title of my last
article for The Print, “Information
Superhighway paves its way to
Clackamas.” This gives the im
pression that the article’s content
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concerns Internet resources avail
able at Clackamas Community
College.
Some people expressed sur
prise at finding the article was in
stead a history of the Internet’s be
ginning.
I am sorry for the inconsis
tency. I do not write the titles, only
the articles. In retrospect, I should
have made an opportunity for my
self to look at the title before the
paper went to print. I will attempt
to do this in the future, to avoid
any further confusion or contro
versy.
The use of the term, Informa
tion Superhighway, is regrettable.
I find it to be something of a mis
nomer.
The term was invented by
members of government, and of
industry, to describe integration of
cable and telephone services
through reregulation.
The concept was to create a
superstructure for a national
video-phone system, and remove
cut-throat industry competition.
The term attempted to capture the
spirit of the national phone system,
and the national highway building
projects.
The idea was to provide bet
ter interconnection, and increased
funds for ‘New Deal’-type con
struction projects, to boost eco
nomic and technological growth.
The concept was seriously
flawed from the beginning. Differ
ent standards and the technologi
cal limitations make the integra
tion of cable (broadcast vision)
and telephone (two-way sound)
difficult, nigh impossible.
Fiber optics was envisioned
as the solution; providing a wider
band width (so more services
could be included), and a medium
for developing a new communica
tion standard.
The fiber optic superhighway
would require replacing the aging
copper communication trunk lines,
between major population centers.
For the full implementation, fiber
optics would have to run from the
trunk lines to each building.-This
proved to be prohibitively expen
sive for the debt- ridden, post Cold
War, government. -
The média began a specula
tive extrapolation of what the In
formation Superhighway entails.
(It’s the future media that will
change the way the we receive in
formation and seek entertain
ment.) A dream of global commu
nications making the world a bet
ter place to live. (Working, shop
ping and banking at home would
make regular transit unnecessary.
People could tap a broader
spectrum of humanity from their
own home, a ever could be
achieved in a lifetime of world
travel, etc. etc. etc....) The terms
Information Superhighway and
Internet quickly became inter
changeable, as the lines between
fact and fantasy blurred.
Recently, computer industry
development of smaller products,
has brought portable personal
computing into mainstream cul
ture. Corporations of the commu
nication and entertainment indus
tries have been gobbling up their
smaller competitors, and have
been merging with each other.
These events, along with me
dia hype, is leading to the general
opinion that the Internet is an in
fantile form of the future Informa
tion Superhighway.
The government decided that
it is unable to afford the develop
ment of the Information Super
highway. Now, it is left to the pri
vate enterprises to develop tech
nologies, to make the information
dream come true.
Most of the original codes
and sights of the early Internet
projects have been bought. These
systems are primitive in compari
son to the grandiose plans for the
Information Superhighway. There
are still many services that have
to be developed, and interfaces to
be made user friendly.
The corporate media versipn
of the Information Superhighway
requires security on a scale that is
missing from the current Internet.
Many companies working indi
vidually, and cooperatively, are
attempting to produce security sys
tems.
These (propriety) systems
will use encryption, masking, and
evasion techniques to prevent in
terpretation, interception or cor
ruption of data. The data could be
bank funds, as well as private
documents or proprietary pro
grams. Using electronic funds one
could conduct transactions for
goods, services, or information
anywhere in the world, without
having to exchange currency. The
global interaction would boost,
and unify, the international
economy.
While culturing dreams of a
utopie communications future, we
must keep sight of the flaws that
implementation could entail.
The plans for commercializ
ing the Internet do not appear to
include the poor. Even if electron-
ics become cheap, and our coun
try affluent, there will always be
poor people. A minority of people
in our country, and the majority of
people in the Third World, who
can not afford the cost of riding
on the superhighway. These
people are excluded from not only
an economic system but also the
creative benefits of mankind.
The founding spirit of the
Internet was of free interaction for
mutual benefit. The idea of infor
mational freedom still permeates
the Internet today, but corporate
greed is tampering with it. Com
mercialization threatens not only
to exclude the poor but to create
class distinctions within the
Internet itself.
The security systems being
developed today could open the
door to some horrific possibilities.
History has proven that power
belongs to those people with the
control of money production and
key resources. The development
of secure monetary systems in the
hands of private corporations.
Who will look out for the under
dog, the poor, or the long term
benefit of humanity?
Eras of history are named af
ter the resource most important to
make tools (of both creation and
destruction). Thus we have the
Stone Age,... Bronze Age,... Steel
Age (typically termed as the In
dustrial Revolution),... Atomic
Age, Space Age.
We are now in, or are enter
ing, the Information Age, or the
Computer Age. A government that
gives away its control of money
production, must secure control of
the age’s key commodity (to pre
vent corporate takeover): informa
tion.
Information has always been
important, but secondary to the
resources and brute force wielded.
Global communications make the
benefits of location and posses
sion, secondary to having the
proper information, before it is
obsolete.
We have conquered our envi
ronment (but by no means control
it) and can make drastic changes
to it. At this stage of technologi
cal development^ it is important to
possess knowledge in a timely
manner so resources can be use
wisely. (Our power to manipulate
exceeds our knowledge of proper
control.)
To retain power, governments
must control information. How
would one go about controlling
information? In the past, govern
ments (like Nazi Germany, Stalin’s
Russia, and the United States dur
ing the red scare) suppressed the
truth and reason, and replaced it
with stereotypes and hate ideals.
For the first time in history,
there is a medium of mass com
munication that is too large, un
controlled and international, that
it cannot be controlled.
The U.S. is attempting to re
gain that control (or trying to feel
like it is regaining that control) by
requiring all computers produced
in the US to have a Clipper Chip
built in. The Clipper Chip creates
a ‘back door’ in any encryption
scheme. The ‘back door’ would
give access to the government (or
the inventive hacker) so encrypted.
On computers equipped with Clip
per Chips, data can be read.
The required Clipper Chip
(although, some have voluntarily
installed chips) has not passed into
law (or so they tell us) because it
would set a dangerous precedent.
Full implementation of the chip
would give a governmental body
(associated to the CIA and FBI)
the power to access any informa
tion it wanted. A benign govern
ment would pose little treat to free
dom and privacy, but there is al
ways the risk of abuse. With abuse
a government can quickly become
like Big Brother, from George
Orwell’s novel, 1984.
A Note From The Author
Issues concerning the Internet
and more importantly, discussion
of access privileges for Clackamas
students on the Internet are of pri
mary interest to me. If you, fac
ulty or student would like to give
me your input, feel free to e-mail
me. From campus I can be reached
at lund5757.
If you are will
ing to have you views published,
please specifically state so in your
message. I cannot guarantee pub-
lication of some, any, or all, of
your submissions. I am always
looking for new material and for
new e-friends.