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Re: ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF CYBERSPACE
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1993 19:16:16 -0400
Subject: Re: ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF CYBERSPACE Date: Fri, 29 Oct 93 10:49:38 PDT From: David Ronfeldt <David_Ronfeldt () rand org> I like that. Actually, Chip Morningstar and Randall Farmer wrote about the colonization metaphor a couple years ahead of Farber and Shefski. What follows is my description (as published in my Cyberocracy Is Coming piece in Bob Anderson's journal**) of an article they wrote and a talk they gave using the metaphor. --------- ** The Information Society, a journal. --------- .......EXTRACT from Cyberocracy Is Coming While most discussions view cyberspace as something that does not exist and hence must be constructed--the case with the preceding analogies--still another analogy views it as a frontier that virtually exists and beckons for exploration, colonization, and development. "The colonization and settlement of North America by Europeans provides a useful model for thinking about the growth of cyberspace. Like sixteenth century Europeans, we too have found a New World (new to us, anyway). As cyberspace develops, we believe that the notions of colonization and settlement will prove more useful in describing and analyzing what is happening than the notions of design and creation."[1] In this view, different "cyberspace colonies" will be (indeed, they already are being) carved out by many different kinds of actors, many of them initially misfits and adventurers from ordinary society. As the colonies grow, they may be expected to develop different forms of government, citizenship, and property rights. They may also be expected to improve their (electronic) resource bases and transportation systems, to compete for immigrants and settlers, and to expand their boundaries toward each other. As this occurs, the colonies will increasingly enter into trade relations and diplomatic negotiations with each other. Conflict and crime may increase as the colonies face issues of whether to oppose each other or to interconnect. In the end, if all goes well according to the originators of this analogy, traditional American principles of decentralization, pluralism, and tolerance may provide the bases for the integration of a national and perhaps global cyberspace.[2] [1] Chip Morningstar and F. Randall Farmer, "Cyberspace Colonies," The Second International Conference on Cyberspace: Collected Abstracts, Group for the Study of Virtual Systems, Center for Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, April 19-20, 1991, pp. 110-111. [2] From my notes on the talk by Morningstar and Farmer, "Cyberspace Colonies," Second International Conference on Cyberspace, University of California, Santa Cruz, April 20, 1991. While I think that the metaphor is illuminating, some listeners were disturbed that it might imply the exploitation and subjugation of minorities.
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