The InterNet Age (1995)

"The Net will change your life. It may make your job easier, harder, provide an alternative or eliminate it entirely. You may make new friends over it, you may buy products over it, you may be entertained by it, you may even vote over it, but it is certain to affect you. You probably have a sense of this already.

Society has always been shaped by ideas and technology. From making a wheel to the invention of the motor car - technology has made profound changes to the way we interact with others and our environment. We mark the importance of the greatest technological impacts by naming them Ages - such as the bronze age, the iron age, the industrial age, the jet age, the computer age, the information age and the space age.

The Net Age has dawned. We are now experiencing a series of technological innovations that will dramatically alter all societies forever. The advent of universal international, interconnected networking or Internet has produced an interacting conglomeration of virtual communities unbounded by geographical limits. This enabling network technology has flowing through its global pathways flourishing galleries of Net Art, vibrant discussion groups of unprecedented activity, a staggering growth of commercial transactions and vast numbers of individual and group statements of identity.

In practical terms the Internet can provide cost advantages in all spheres of information retrieval and communication. In social terms the Internet provides a global neighborhood for meeting individuals and groups. In artistic terms the Internet provides a new opportunity for artists to represent their work and exhibit world wide. In marketing terms the Internet provides a dissemination mechanism that can accurately link the product or service to the right target demographic. In scientific and philosophical endeavors the Internet provides the forum for rapidly disseminating, explaining, debating and developing new ideas. All without national boundaries and a controlling headquarters.

As an information base it currently gives access to about 20% of the information resource of the planet. As an interactive telecommunication mechanism it gives easy, inexpensive access to any of its users. As a marketing medium it enables you to research and purchase all manner of products quickly and conveniently. It does more than this of course. We keep inventing improvements for it and new ways to use this remarkable tool.

By its very nature it facilitates communication, the promulgation of ideas and the retrieval of knowledge. Because, unlike television, it is an interactive technology, it evidences the global village and global market phenomena more than any other. It expands the sphere of operation of individuals from a local telephone calling code (a city wide contact base) to that of a global calling code at a price available to most.

It is amazingly useful, cheap, easy to use and inexorable. At the time of writing there are roughly 20 million regular Internet users. In a few short years Internet usage will approach a billion regular users. You are almost certain to be one of them.

As a technological tool it will have more impact on improving the lot of mankind than making fire."