Mind Control at MIT
Alex Constantine
David M Fisher A review of the book
"being digital by NICHOLAS NEGROPONTE"
No you're not seeing a digital error in the title, that's how it appears in
vibrant white alabaster print, pulsating in 0,1 time, on the shinny black
cover of this best-selling Random House release by MIT researcher Nicholas
Negroponte. As founder and director of the Media Lab at MIT Negroponte has
been part of the wave of digital technology from its inception. Because of
the speed of this digitally-driven revolution Negroponte has re-directed the
themes to many of his essays that first appeared in the pages of Wired
Magazine.
A visionary and futurist Negroponte has outlined the pros and cons of
various digital pathways and offered up his colorful and mind rendering
assessments. Sprinkling his descriptions with interesting tid-bits (when
puns are outlawed I'll stop using them, maybe) of information. He does a
good job describing the fundamentals of the emerging digital world.
According to Negroponte, what caused this revolution to occur so rapidly has
been the mechanical ability "to compress the raw digital form of sound and
picture... by removing...redundancies and repetitions...(at) very high
levels of compression much sooner than... predicted." In fact, some
Europeans as late as 1993 argued that digital TV would not be a reality till
the next millennium.
Given the commanding presence of defense related contracts at MIT and
Negroponte's own admitted role in government funded research, it is my
speculation that most of what Negroponte envisions is already a digital
reality, waiting only for a marketing strategy which perhaps Negroponte is a
part. One gets the feeling that his descriptions of future technology such
as the set of satellite powered cufflinks more powerful than superman (my
analogy) is already in use.
Being digital requires the ability to think digitally and Negroponte begins
logically enough at the beginning, teaching us to count digitally. When all
the numbers that have anything other than 1 and 0 in them are removed You
end up with 1,10,11,100,101.... these are the numbers 1,2,3,4,5... and so
on, the 1 and 0 are the bits in our bit and byte world where the byte is
bigger than the bit by a factor of 8. It appears we are marching off into
infinity bit (there's not a law against it yet) by bit.
Like Alvin Toffler, Negroponte is a philosopher who envisions a cellular
community no longer limited by time and space, that is brought to us on the
"head of a pin" fashioning neighborhoods together in smaller digital
networks that would shed their nation-state paradigms. He sees less
government and more community, resting his hopes with the digital revolution
driving itself as it revolves faster and faster from generation to
generation.
He also seems to feel that computers will be a universal educational
phenomena, easy for the children of developing nations to learn, and that
computer games teach children strategy and planning skills applicable to
later life. However; according to trade magazines, most of the games
currently popular today simulate violent war games or competitive sports
events from kickboxing to ice hockey; a Circus Americanus of neo-roman
gladiators.
As this digitally wired future exponentially opens up, legal and ethical
tenants will have to be developed to guide us through this exciting new
techno-frontier. In a chapter called the ÒBit PoliceÓ Negroponte delineates
a problem associated with the changing face of broadcasting. In the old days
each medium had its wave spectrum which was physically defined by its
broadcasting medium; radio, television or cellular telephonery. However, the
digital medium is blurred and the use of bit-waves would have to be
monitored to determine if indeed the company receiving the licensed
broadcast was applying it to the proper mode, that is to make sure a radio
licensee for instance is not broadcasting waves used for TV. Here Negroponte
argues against government regulation and for market economies and strategies
that would promote plurality of media by replacing cross-ownership laws with
digital guidelines and incentives.
With respect to bit protection Negroponte poses a question about traditional
copyright laws which protect the expression and form of an idea as opposed
to the idea it self. He leaves us crying for resolution; "To what degree can
the notion of formless data be extended to less prosaic material?... When
bits are bits we have a whole new suite of questions....the medium is no
longer the message." In otherwords the receiver of digital data, not limited
by broadcast medium, will then transfer it to anyone of the
multi-communinication modes it chooses. Since new multimedia friendly
regulations are needed to encourage this new two bit (Im sic) digital
communication mode, my question is. How will these new laws be fashioned to
impact the public good?
Negroponte has stretched the digital imagination and mapped out broad new
horizons. He has given us a peek at future technology currently shrouded in
the cloak of defense contracts and top secret government experiments, to
which he has been a party. He has espoused his belief in a market driven
economy in which only the world banking community is exempted from state
sponsored encryption laws and the only foreseen conflict is between
generations.
For myself I believe that social evolution must be guided by a humanitarian
influence. If Negroponte looks too closely he might have to question Defense
Department use of technology he helped create, bringing him face to face
with the moral dilemma which is at the heart of this technology debate. Alex
Constantine's book "Psychic Dictatorship in the USA" (1995) calls into
question the ethicality and morality of research done by the Defense
Department at MIT. Should the technology be used to control the individual,
or should it be used by the individual to gain more self-control? The ethics
of a scientist should be different than those of the politician or defense
contractor. If we are to use this technology in a responsible manner then we
must develop a policy that takes into account the social and environmental
factors of our current crisis. Perhaps Negroponte's vision has been jaded by
his close association with the goals of Defense Department officials who are
using this technology to control humans rather than to help them.
I agree with Negroponte that this technology offers humanity new hope. I
envision it could be adapted as part of a curriculum in which students K-12
are part of the solution to our environmental and economic problems, not in
competition with an older generation as Negroponte sees it, but as an
extension of that generation working in tandem with it to help promote our
social evolutionary progress. The problems we are dealing with today are
complex because they have penetrated every fiber of our social and economic
fabric. Unfortunately, like the digitally-symbolic black and white cover of
his book, Negroponte's market place solution is too simplistic
Return to cover page[Image]
Allen Drugge
< Mind Control at MIT
< Given the commanding presence of defense related contracts at MIT and
< Negroponte's own admitted role in government funded research, it is my
< speculation that most of what Negroponte envisions is already a digital
< reality, waiting only for a marketing strategy which perhaps Negroponte is
< apart. One gets the feeling that his descriptions of future technology such
< as the set of satellite powered cufflinks more powerful than superman (my
< analogy) is already in use.
No licensing agreements for this type of satellite application have
been approved by the Empire and any attempt to orbit such a device
will be considered a rogue element and dealt with accordingly.
AEIOU