The Information Revolution

"As for technological acceleration, it now approaches the speed of light. All nonelectric media had merely hastened things a bit. The wheel, the road, the ship, the airplane, and even the space rocket are utterly lacking in the character of instant movement. Is it strange, then, that electricity should confer on all previous human organization a completely new character?"

Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media.

The Industrial Revolution was a social revolution.
It was not just about machines that created employment, factories and cities.
In France, their social revolution was a bloody affair.
The angry mob.
The guillotine.

The Information Revolution is a social revolution.
It is not just about machines that create unemployment, home-offices and decentralization.
In Eastern Europe the Iron Curtain rusted away.
In China it is a matter of time.
Information flow dissolves centralized power.
The global market dissolves countries.
It transforms the way we live.


Related Article: Revolution by Information: An expanded version of this article discussing: Access to Information is causing a worldwide revolution, politically, culturally and socially. We consider the role of Technology surrounding the events of Tiananmen Square in China in 1989.

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