The Internet in the mind of its creators was different from what it emerged to be and what it is today. Even in the 1960s, when the Soviet Union was developing the concept of the digital network, the ideas of solving the economic and social problems of the population persisted among scholars and party workers (“The Stillbirth of the Soviet Internet”).
Intellectuals in the U.S. also dreamed about how it would contribute to the prosperity of humankind by fostering global knowledge sharing and creation. To a certain extent, those ideas came true because projects like Wikipedia emerged and became popular and both Soviet (now Russian) and American people contributed to it despite their views on each other.
On the other hand, the internet imbues and translates plenty of hatred, ideologically influenced talk, and negativity, which undermines its merit. The possibility and the necessity for control become ever more evident and inevitable. In his, article Sterling discusses the emergence of hypermedia, which unites and incorporates the sources of information as a force that can rise above the market and capitalistic values and dominate over the information consumption.
Still, whatever political orientation the new force will be, the culture will influence it regardless, as one cannot separate it from the identities of those who form hypermedia. Both the Podcast and Sterling’s article seemingly are united in their disbelief that a human mind can rationally and consciously predict the development of something so complex and multifaceted as the internet and organized it. However, attempts need to be made to undo the present chaos and cacophony, because the future depends on our ability as a species to find common ground.
Works Cited
Sterling, Bruce. “‘The Californian Ideology’ by Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron (1995).” Medium. 2017.
“The Stillbirth of the Soviet Internet.” Sean’s Russia Blog, 2016. Web.