The Economist Looks At Digital Dilemmas

from the they're-everywhere dept

The latest Economist Survey looks at a variety of "digital dilemmas" facing the internet moving forward. On the whole, they seem to be optimistic about things, pointing out that, at a fundamental level, the internet really does have the power to absolutely change many aspects of society - even if it didn't happen as quickly as people predicted. I believe it might be a case where people over-predict what will happen in the next year, but under-predict what will happen in the next decade. There are some challenges, however, and those are the issues that seem to crop up on Techdirt quite often. The Economist takes their own stab at a bunch of them (and does a pretty good job at it, too). They look at privacy questions, intellectual property issues, whether the internet helps democracy flourish or does it strengthen repressive regimes? In the end, they point out that the big questions clearly are not technological, but social and political. They also include a nice little scenario which does a good job demonstrating that technology is just a tool that has both good and bad consequences, and the determination of "good" or "bad" may depend on where you're standing.