Console Cowboys versus Megacorporations

The Internet was created with the vision that the, “general purpose of the machine would be to augment human intelligence and help humans negotiate life’s complexities” (Wu, 171). While this vision has come true, large corporations alter the way in which we use the Internet and the world of Cyberspace. These mega corporations have so much control over the Internet that they are seen as more powerful than the Internet users. While Gibson imagined a world with console cowboys and gentleman losers having more control, the future actually lies in the hands of the mega corporations based on history, the cycle, our inability to separate from our human qualities.

Wu defines the cycle as, “the oscillation of information industries between open and closed systems” (Wu, 6). It demonstrates the idea that throughout history new technologies have emerged by the lone inventor and are later taken over by mega corporations. Larger companies with more power and money always suppress individuals with innovative ideas. One example of this is the Mesa Telephone Company versus the Bell Company. Edmund Burch, a farmer, decided to wire his own telephone network because of his isolated location Bell would not build one. Burch’s idea grew and he began to build more wires where Bell would not. His group gained a lot of power and became known as the Independents, the ones that were rivalry the largest telephone company that existed. However their success was short run eventually Mesa and the Independents gave up and sold out to the mighty Bell Company (Wu, 53). Despite the idea that, “markets are born free no sooner are they born than some would-be emperor is forging chains” (Wu, 310). The bigger corporation always seems to win. This idea of the cycle and dominance by a larger power also holds true in the story in the invention of the FM radio. It was a battle between the lone inventor, Edwin Armstrong and the most powerful man in American Broadcasting, David Sarnoff. Sarnoff thought FM technology would be a revolution, not something he wanted (he thought AM radio should stay in control and the invention of television should be promoted).  Sarnoff convinced the FCC to restrict FM broadcasting to one narrow band. These restrictions placed on FM technology,  “shows, as we shall see, that perhaps the most effective way to gain power over the future is to dictate popular assumptions” (Wu, 130). The government and powerful people and/or large companies can control new technology and how society uses it.  These examples found in the Master Switch demonstrate how history and the cycle keep repeating; large corporations always overtake the subordinate inventors. This will hold true in the future because there will always be a desire for a company to eliminate competition. The mega corporations will grow in power by controlling Cyberspace and dictating how we are permitted to use it. The future looks to be one where people like Vail and Sarnoff will continue to dominate the world of technology. It has been proven that the cycle repeats and there is little hope for deviation.

The continuation that mega corporations will be more powerful than the users of the certain technological devices is based on the idea of the open and closed system. The mega corporations are implementing a closed system, but the Internet being an open system is far from the truth. John Barlow argues, “We must declare our virtual selves immune to your sovereignty, even as we continue to consent to your rule over our bodies. We will spread ourselves across the Planet so that no one can arrest our thoughts.We will create a civilization of the Mind in Cyberspace. May it be more humane and fair than the world your governments have made before” (Barlow, 2).  This would be idealistic, however history demonstrates that the future will not be open. Gibson, along with Barlow, describes a future where the players have the most power and larger corporations fall at the wayside. I think that to become as powerful as Molly we will need to adopt her way of life. We will need blades to come out of our fingertips and glasses that stop of tear ducts (a sign of weakness), in essence we will have to become inhuman to overtake the mega corporations. In our future, we still want the connection to humanity and the natural world and to the characteristics that make us human like our personality and ability to cry out of eyes. I doubt that it will be accepted to even jack into a matrix let alone alter ourselves to survive and become more powerful in cyberspace. Gibson does not mention any “regular humans” in his projection of the future. I think this is because to fully take over the mega corporations we will have to cut our ties to humanity and our need for the natural world. We have to become cold and a little heartless to be as powerful as the large companies that are in control of technology now. Molly states, “Except sometimes I do hurt people sometimes. I guess it’s just the way I’m wired” (Gibson, 25).  Gibson projects that in the future humans will end up being wired; we will mesh flesh with technology. In Wu’s idea of the future the mega corporations will be in control of the wires of the Internet and Cyberspace. It will not be a change in humanity as Gibson presents, but a change and tighter restriction of technology. It also highlights the difference between and open and closed society.  Lessig explains the open society of the internet mentioned in Neuromancer, “A space built on a commons, where because most early code governing the net was open code, and where because of the architectural principle of end- to-end, the network owner could not control how the net would be used – the resource of the net was left open for innovation; all could draw upon its riches; no one could close another out” (14). This open society does allow for new innovation, an explanation for why Gibson presented so many innovated technologies in his book. In a closed society, innovation will still take place, but it does not reach the potential it could in an open society. The cycle explains that in the future the Internet will become a closed system run by mega corporations. Citizens are limited in their innovation and in their potential by the control of the mega corporations. Console cowboys and gentlemen losers have power and intelligence, something that I believe we possess now, but their mindset and ability to separate themselves from normal human qualities make them the catalyst to gaining power and enforcing an open system of Cyberspace.

Cyberspace and the introduction of consensual hallucination would mean a whole new world where our dynamic of society would change. Change is not bad, just like the introduction of cellular technology cyberspace would allow for more opportunities. However the future looks different than what Gibson presents. Based on history, the continuation of the cycle, and our inability to disconnect from the natural world to become less human I believe that mega corporations will be more powerful than the users of the technology. We would regress to an era where cowboys, men on horses, would be powerful on the open range. Today, the open range has been replaced by a closed system and this is likely to continue in the future.