Back from the future: the world is flat

As the Internet becomes easier in which to participate and cheaper to implement, techies, thinkers and stakeholders share certain concerns and beliefs on the global flattening. The network will be lowcost; English will continue as the global language of communication yet will not displace other languages; national boundaries will blur; the transparency v. privacy conflict will struggle to build and define the better world; and there will be some reaction to the reaches of technology resulting in planned disruption and refusal to be "on the grid."

Pew Internet published Sunday the results of their survey in the 115 page report on the future of the Internet. Not all positive, the predictions also expressed the dread of control, overregulation and abuse by those in power:

By 2020, intelligent agents and distributed control will cut direct human input so completely out of some key activities such as surveillance, security and tracking systems that technology beyond our control will generate dangers and dependencies that will not be recognized until it is impossible to reverse them. We will be on a "J-curve" of continued acceleration of change.

The Future of the Internet II (September 2006, pdf, 115 pp/524 kB)