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.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
