Return of the Luddites: A Group of Second-Wave Intellectuals Has Rejected Digital Technology and Declared a Counterrevolution

If Luddite beliefs seem a vague notion now, wait a bit. Soon they, or 21st-century mutations of them, will be household words … The real issue isn’t jobs or even the lost forests of Sherwood. It’s the unstiflable desire of human beings to create things. Some of what results makes the world astonishingly better; some is frightening to even think about. The Earth does seem to be in environmental peril, but just as many people will argue that technology can preserve and save it as argue technology will destroy it. And the notion that all the new machinery can or will be dismantled is the silliest kind of sophistry.

Hype List: Videophones

The videophone is a shining example of technology hype. It was invented for the sole purpose of showing off a clever design concept. Despite repeated failures over the last 25 years, despite convincing sociological reasons why no one wants a videophone, engineers continue to develop new, improved versions. Two research fronts exist today: In the U.S., computer companies such as AT&T, Intel, and Sun are developing hardware that allows standard computers to be used as videophones. And in Japan, consumer giants like Sharp and Hitachi are testing devices that allow camcorders to deliver images over a phone line. The technological achievements coming out of both camps are impressive – but misguided.

Hype List: Death of Online Services

The history of U.S. technology is the history of a recurring U.S. dream: new inventions will empower the individual more than the corporation … A current variant is the prediction that the anarchic Internet will turn people into media makers and kill off more restrictive commercial services like America Online and CompuServe. This prediction has two flaws. First, in a society satisfied by “Baywatch” reruns, few people will produce or consume the amateur media. Second, no matter how nice the Web viewer, the unstructured Internet will always be much harder to use than an online service.

Hype List: PCS versus Cellular

By providing a low-cost, high-quality phone service – with the freedom of mobility thrown in – PCS vendors will gouge the revenues of local phone companies. Your home phone and mobile phone will be one and the same. Once again, technology will have destroyed a monopoly where legislation failed.

Hype List: Post-Internet

The upcoming battle that really matters is the up-start Microsoft Network versus the older, but crowd-pleasing Internet … It says a lot about Microsoft’s reputation that even though the Internet weighs in with 30 million subscribers to MSN’s zero, it’s the Internet that’s being painted as the underdog. But my money is on the Net, a wily opponent with a record of swallowing up any competition. Forget age versus youth; this fight will be a morality tale about hubris.

Hype List: Unlimited Bandwidth

Just as amperage is only one parameter of electrical power, bandwidth is just one aspect of communication. When you make a phone call, you’re paying not just to temporarily own part of the network’s bandwidth, but also for the time it takes your call to get from point A to point B.

Hype List: High-Tech Outrage

Books allowed complex theories to be disseminated, TV brought titillating images of sex and violence to the home, and the Net – well, the Net seems best at spreading controversy. The last few months have seen wave after wave of outrage sweep over the Net. First it was polemics about the Pentium flaw, then it was attacks on the patented GIF algorithm, now it’s debates about IP security holes. Sure, the strength of a many-to-many medium is that it allows for grass-roots organizing, but can’t it empower us to do something other than kvetch?

Hype List: Computer Telephony

We just need to figure out why telephones should merge with computers in the first place. True, the combination could help telemarketers. But for most of us, it’s as useful as a computerized toaster.