Reducing loneliness

As the internet becomes widespread and IT simpler to use, as it will, we will see enormous benefits for our society. The people who may gain most are the old and the frail, many of whom suffer terribly from loneliness in today’s society, their families living hundreds of miles away, often with few friends nearby. For some, their only human contact is the check out assistant in the local supermarket. These are the real casualties of the current fragmentation people complain of. But in ten years, they will be able to sit down and have a cup of coffee and a chat across a huge wall hung screen as if they were in the same room, full life size, full body language. The network will even help them find friends or Bridge partners by the dozen, based on personality matching like rather like Dateline today, but without the high prices. It may not be quite as good as actually being in the same room, but it must be better than gazing at the TV. Surely reducing loneliness will be one of the greatest social benefits from the superhighway.

Community networks and local government

The Internet has spawned a multitude of local community networks (technically, these networks are independent in principle of the Internet and can be implemented in many different ways). Within these communities, mailing lists and discussion groups are particularly suited to large or informal groups - people can dip in and out as they please, without being swamped by messages. People can thus become as involved as they please.

As these local community networks mature, they will be ideal for local debates and socialisation, and they are the natural repository of local information of all kinds. Local attractions such as museums and galleries will be accessible to all via the community network. Digitisation of cities and their contents is already under way, initiated almost entirely by private enterprise. People will visit cities via the net, see their attractions, explore the galleries or visit shops, without ever setting foot in the physical city. There are no car parking problems on the net, and no costly travel to keep visitors away. People will shop and order pizzas on the network, and preview what is on at the theatre before booking their seats.

Residents may also use community networks extensively, co-ordinating local activities, debating local issues, perhaps running committees to arbitrate between competing local interests, and even running neighbourhood watch video networks.

Teleworking centre benefits

A likely effect of teleworking will creation of local telework centres where neighbours can work side by side for different companies. Certainly, many of us don’t have enough space for an office at home. Getting to know our neighbours via work may reinforce the sense of local community too. Obviously the environment would gain from lower commuting travel.

Shadow democracy

If we wanted, we could allow each citizen to have their preferences on important issues stored in a database, an electronic shadow, suitably anonymous to everyone else of course. Government would then know all the time what the electorate want. Referenda could be instant, and lazy voters could select party defaults for all issues instead of deciding on each. Lobbying could be made easier too, and we will see internal as well as global cybernations. We could have absolute instead of representational democracy, or just treat the databases as a continuous opinion poll.

Need for protection of local IP and cultural assets

Entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates are already buying up electronic rights to local community assets such as galleries and museums around the world. There is a strong case for protection since local communities do not fully realise the potential value of their assets and are selling them much too cheaply. With entertainment rising in cost rapidly relative to other parts of life, it is important that the communities gain proper recompense for their assets, not have then sold at bargain prices by authorities with no understanding of future network capabilities.

Dangers from local community networks

Fortunately, the people starting up these networks are altruistic, trying their best to benefit their community, and they deserve nothing but praise. However without protection, it is possible that some people may later seek to control and use them to further their own political motives instead of those of the whole community. The community networks which are starting so idealistically could be reduced to a platform for a parallel local authority. With all the advantages and benefits IT can confer, they will control a large part of local information, content and communications, and may offer a formidable challenge to the elected local authority. It would make sense for local authorities to be involved from the outset, supporting the aims of these networks to strengthen the local community, and encourage involvement of the people in local activity and control. The networks are developing anyway. Local governments that ignore them may simply find themselves becoming side-tracked.

Geographic power structures partially replaced by network based power structures

As people increasingly work and play with people in other countries, we may see political power structures become less geographical, with cybercommunities made of many people who share common ideals, (e.g. environmentalism, feminism, or even Conservatism) rather than a common physical location, linked by networks rather than by land. Global cybernations may wield the weapon of economic sanctions without fear of reprisal since their membership can be anonymous, but mobilised instantaneously by a single e-mail from the leadership.

Taxation erosion

Pure information companies will not ultimately need a physical base, and may move their operations round the world continuously, refusing to pay corporation tax to any geographically based government. Part of their employees’ remuneration may be in kind, with free information, education or entertainment avoiding the tax man.

Government direct initiative

This could make life much easier when you move house, file a tax return or claim a benefit, but we must ensure that the implied cross referencing and consequent ability to centrally monitor all aspects of our lives is not also a slippery slope towards 1984, with no privacy, total surveillance and control. We must also protect from access to too much information by any individuals who may be corrupt. We have been blessed by benevolent government in the UK, but there can be no guarantee that this will always be the case. Any future malevolent power would find digital immortality and ease of access to extensive information on the history of its subjects useful for oppression.

ID Verification & benefits

Finally, it is clear that many future benefits still depend on being able to verify individual identity. As technology makes this routine for banking, shopping and the like, governments might be unable to resist using advanced identification technology for welfare claims, health care, employment and travel. Talk of identity cards with all our information on them misses the point. If a simple iris or fingerprint scan can identify us, our details can be obtained from a database held anywhere. We may forget an ID card, but not our eyeballs or fingers.

Electronic cash

When cash is digitised, it loses some of the restrictions of physical cash. Imagine a child has a cash card. Her parents can give her pocket money, dinner money, clothing allowance and so on. They can all be labelled separately, so that she can’t spend all her dinner money on chocolate. Electronic shopping can of course provide the information needed to enable the cash. She may have restrictions about how much of her pocket money she may spend on various items too. There is no reason why children couldn’t implement their own economies too, swapping tokens and IOUs. Of course, in the adult world this grows up into local exchange trading systems (LETS), where people exchange tokens too, a glorified babysitting circle. But these LETS don’t have to be just local, wider circles could be set up, even globally, to allow people to exchange services or information with each other.

But one of the best advantages of making cash digital is the seamlessness of international purchases. Even without common official currency, the electronic cash systems will become de facto international standards. This will reduce the currency exchange tax we currently pay to the banks every time we travel to a different country, which can add up to as much as 25% for an overnight visit. This is one of the justifications often cited for European monetary union, but it is happening anyway in global e-commerce.