IP: Re: What is IT?

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>From: Esther Dyson <edyson@edventure.com>
>Subject: Re: What is IT?
>Cc: farber@cis.upenn.edu
>
>I hope this is not too little, too late, but here are some less euphoric
>thoughts.
>
>It's ironic that Steve Jobs, of all people, should call this as significant
>as the PC.  He is after all (I believe) the guy who coined the phrase "a
>bicycle for the mind."  Here we seem to be talking about a better bicycle
>for the body.  What makes the PC - plus the Internet, to be sure - so
>exciting is what it does to the mind and to the ability of minds to
>communicate across time and distance.  This thing, wonderful as it may be,
>seems to be a distinctly local -travel device. It will not change the social
>structurethe way information does, by giving people access to
>information/truth on a broad scale, by fostering transparency and by
>exposing corruption, inequality, etc.  Of course, the Net doesn't do that
>all by itself, but it's a tool that lets people find out and spread
>information.    IT may  indeed help poor people get to their jobs, which is
>a significant benefit, and it may change living patterns, but I do not see
>it upsetting the socia/power infrastructure the way broad access to
>information and information-dissemination ability does.
>
>Meanwhile, if I were a VC doing due diligence on this thing, my first stop
>would be Amsterdam (and then perhaps Beijing, where bicycles abound, as
>opposed to Taipei, where the device of choice is a motorbike).  I'd survey a
>sample of residents:
>
>"So why do so many of you use cars, when bicycles are practical, socially
>accepted, work far better on the tiny streets (woe to the driver who gets
>caught behind a garbage truck, as happens frequently)??"  I don't see that
>Amsterdam, let alone Beijing, is all that much  better off than most other
>cities for the prevalence of bicycles....  They are handy, but they do not
>change the social structure, nor do they seem to compete effectively against
>cars when people get the income to afford them.  (Or will we have laws
>requiring the use of IT?)
>
>Of course, I'd like one...and I loved my bicycle too.  But I'm much more
>dependent on/"transported" by  my Net-connected PC than I would ever be on a
>personal-transportation device (and I say this with some irony as someone
>who does not drive a car but is pretty handy with a bike).
>
>Esther Dyson



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