Both The Master Switch by Tim Wu and Neuromancer by William Gibson present an idea of our future in terms of technology and cyberspace. On the one hand, William Gibson depicts a bleak cyberspace filled with simstims, which give people the ability to experience another person’s feelings and interaction, and the ability to jack in to cyberspace world that was an escape of one’s self, filled with console cowboys and gentleman losers holding power. On the other hand, Tim Wu sees computer technology as a “general purpose machine that might augment human intelligence and help humans negotiate life’s complexities” (Wu 171). Wu’s take on these matters seem far more realistic than Gibson’s because of Wu's ability to prove his ideas of the future with examples from history and The Cycle. The Cycle is Wu’s terminology for the process in which each new revolution in information technology, whether it is the telephone, movie, radio, or television, became major threats to the previous controlling industries monopolies. Over time the old powers or mega corporations dominated these new technologies. Throughout the years, technology has evolved and is constantly advancing because of the many hard working inventors and moguls of this information empire. Wu takes readers through the many changes that technology has experienced and explains The Cycle that will continue to help these advances flourish and end in the hands of mega corporations. However, Gibson’s novel takes readers on a journey into cyberspace that seems far from reality. While it is understood that his story is purely fiction and serves as a warning for the future of technology, it still seems far fetched.
In Neuromancer, Gibson discusses a number of unlikely occurrences. The one that strikes as most unrealistic is the simstim because it is not possible to experience another person’s emotions. People cannot see things through other people’s eyes unless they were in some way linked to the other’s nervous system. Due to the fact that this is not physically possible, it makes Gibson’s imagined realm of cyberspace less likely to become our fate.
Another unlikely occurrence that is mentioned in Gibson’s novel is the idea that artificial intelligence could take over. Gibson discusses this fear and has Molly and Case trying to prevent it from becoming true. In reality, artificial intelligence is hardly close to taking over human beings. The Turing Test, invented by Alan Turing, tests technologies to see if they are smart enough to be considered artificially intelligent. If a human being communicates with a machine for a certain number of moments and cannot tell that they are communicating with a machine, then the machine has passed the test. However, few machines are even able to pass the test, so it is doubtful that these machines will be able to take over.
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In Gibson’s vision of cyber space, people can jack in to it and it becomes immersive; people become so “in the zone” that they forget that they are not in the real world. Although cyberspace has the possibility of becoming this type of immersive technology, it is not presently something that people can jack into and lose all sense of being, time and space. Humans do tend to lose track of time very easily on the Internet, but they are aware that they are still in the real world, not immersed in another world of cyberspace or The Matrix. If the future were to come to this, would there be any need for human interaction in the real world? If this idea were to ever become real, human beings would lose the intimacy of human interaction, lack social skills and if they fail to interact physically with the obvious exception of basic necessities.
Gibson’s Neuromancer follows Case and Molly as they jack into and travel through cyberspace. There is no emotional connection that readers can latch onto because there is no expression of true feelings that intrigues readers. The way the Gibson describes their lives and personalities makes them seem inhumane and detached. Humans have a necessity for human interaction and emotional connections. It seems highly unrealistic that human beings could do away with such an important necessity. A probable reason as to why we are so far from technologies in which we can simply jack in to cyberspace may be because human beings do not want to leave their human senses behind in return for an artificial stimulation. If it became immersive enough, would people be so absorbed that they would become less human? It is frightening to think that it is a possibility to become less human, but if we were so connected to avatars in cyberspace we would become disconnected from the real world and our human nature.
In The Master Switch, Tim Wu expresses far more realistic concerns for our future of technology and cyberspace. Wu presents his idea of The Cycle as a repetitive problem if it is not broken because we would never have the ability to experience freedom of information that is not controlled and dominated by large businesses and corporations. Tim Wu’s fear of The Cycle applying to the Internet is realistic because he has proven The Cycle to be a real problem for other information technologies. This holds true because one company will always want to be the best and will strive to eliminate all competition. Mega corporations are so successful with this and continue to grow because they have the power to take over smaller companies. This means that there is hardly any room for a digression from The Cycle.
Wu’s fear of The Cycle affecting the Internet was almost diminished when AOL and Time Warner failed to merge effectively. Wu states that in order for this merger to be successful, “the firm would have needed to overturn the net neutrality principles at the core of the Internet’s design” (267). After The Cycle failed in this situation the Internet was unrestricted for a brief period of time. Predictably, The Cycle came into action again, as Apple became increasingly popular.
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Steve Wozniak helped lead Apple to become a strong company. Under his control, Apple gave people multiple resources to change how they accessed information, something that had previously been restricted. Unfortunately, Steve Jobs took control of Apple from Wozniak by forcing him out of power. Jobs strongly believed that Apple would be superior if it offered service through closed industries. For example, when the iPhone was first released, it was only available on AT&T’s network. Jobs forced the continuation of closed industry, thus encouraging The Cycle. Wu fears Jobs because Jobs wants to obtain as much power as he can have. Although his ideas are appealing to many, proven by Apple’s numerous successful products, the desire of power can be dangerous.
While it would be nice to find a balance between an open and a closed society, it is not likely while The Cycle is still in effect. However, Tim Wu discusses his idea of net neutrality. Net neutrality advocates no restrictions on the Internet for paid users. This means that while people are paying a company to receive Internet access, they are able to obtain any information they want from the Internet. The service providers, however, can manipulate the tubes that make up the Internet. This would mean that some websites take less time to load because the service provider made the tube bigger, therefore easier for the information to travel to the viewer. Other websites have smaller tubes to travel through which means that it takes the information longer to reach the person. In a similar scenario, Apple has placed restrictions on things such as applications that can be downloaded to an iPhone. It has led to a large number of people jailbreaking their iPhones to get around such restrictions. Steve Jobs has also acknowledged that Adobe Flash is not supported on Apple products. These restrictions have come to upset many people, because just like paying Internet users, Apple users do not want restrictions on something for which they have paid.
Since there has yet to be a median between open and closed society, it is likely that our future will more closely resemble Wu’s ideas. He has proven that The Cycle is hard to break and that the Internet is headed towards becoming a closed technology run by mega corporations, just as the other information technologies have. Internet service providers will resemble the mega corporations that will control Internet access, creating a closed technology. Thus, The Cycle will again prevail causing humans to be restricted on the Internet. A future imagined in terms of Wu’s ideas, is preferred to the bleak cyberspace of Neuromancer, in which human interaction would die down and people would become immersed so heavily in technology that they become less human. The University of Richmond has already violated the idea of net neutrality. The Internet is free to people on campus, but it is meant for educational purposes. Therefore, websites that seem non-educational take longer to load. In doing this, the university has partially closed the Internet, just as a mega corporation would do in terms of The Cycle.
Sources
Sources
Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Ace, 1984. Print.
Wu, Tim. The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. New York: Knopf, 2010. Print. 
Wu's Cycle certainly has a larger historical backing than Gibson's Cyberspace. But remember, whereas Wu is drawing from history, Gibson is speculating and warning of a future that, while may not look so bleak, is in principle the same form of virtual disconnect we seem to be moving towards today.
ReplyDeleteFor example, people have immersed themselves into virtual worlds to the point of physical destruction. They supplement their social need for human interaction with interaction online, a depressing but not so far-fetched shift in human behavior. People have done stranger things.
As for companies like Apple, their true source of power comes from their branding techniques, by definition requiring a closed system to establish their brand name. Much of the hype and promise associated with Apple is associated with the brand and culture that Apple has created. If Apple customers aren't immersing themselves in a virtual reality, a culture fabricated by Apple, I've lost handle on what is real.
Also, I think increased technological advancement may point to Gibson's world. Take, for instance, your mention of the ISP's control of our Internet speed. At one point in time I would agree with you - ISP's were able to control our connection speed. However, with fiber optic cables and a gaining wireless market, tube sizes no longer seem relevant. The old CAT 5 cables are being replaced by fiber optics, which are much faster. And the wireless speeds are getting as fast as the wired connections.