subject: The Digital Revolution: More Profound than the Industrial Revolution? [print this page] The Digital Revolution: More Profound than the Industrial Revolution?
There is no denying that we are well into the beginning of the computer age--a digital revolution. Just what exactly that means we don't know yet and furthermore, this revolution has the potential for changing our lives in far more radical and multifarious ways than the industrial revolution ever did. Some might assert that we haven't seen anything like this since man discovered fire. I just might concur with that.
Some think the computer revolution will bring on a new Dark Age. Like the movie the Matrix, we ourselves will become slaves to the very automated systems that were supposed to free us. Others think that it is exactly a Golden Age of freedom that digital technology will bring us as we harness the skills and talents of the most exceptional minds into programs that can be reproduced and distributed among an increasingly intelligent population.
While elements of both of these may be true and happening today, digital technology is also exploding in the consumer market and acting as a great pacifier. From phones to music to socializing with friends, the presence of digital gadgets is undeniable and has undeniably changed the lives of the majority of people in the world to a lesser or greater extent. We should never forget that though our minds and psychology are changing due to digital technology, computers did not invent themselves. We invented them and in the process are reinventing ourselves.
There are many voices critical of this realignment of human thinking, much lamenting at how artificial we have become. We are often a step away from a true friendship with another person; a cell phone, home page, or chat software between us.
But the Internet revolution has also expanded our access to goods and information in immeasurable ways, and we are a more sophisticated species as a result. As one cosmologist quipped, "It's lamentable that the first signals that will be received in outer space from earth will be insipid radio and TV. Episodes instead of the World Wide Web."
