A couple of my personal experiences twenty years ago that precipitated an epiphany related to the integration of computers, digital media, the Internet and globalization are now nothing more than quaint historical anecdotes in the history of the frantic development of new technologies and the frantic development of new methods of integrating new technologies.
Both of my personal experiences were related to my efforts to help my son, Garrison Alton Batchelder, research information for some elementary school reports. The first report assignment was to research information related to his name. Garrison, Alton and Batchelder are all derived from ancient and medieval English words. When I entered the word “Alton” as a search parameter in the most popular search engine in 1995 (Altavista), I was provided a list of web sites that included the web site for a town named Alton, England. When I clicked on the web site for Alton, England, I was immediately connected to a web server located in Alton, England. For a variety of reasons, I was astonished that a basic personal computer, connected to a 1200 Baud modem, which was in turn connected to the Internet using a $19.95 per month AOL account, could nearly instantaneously connect to and download information from a web server located six thousand miles away in Alton, England. After having lived in South America in the late 1960’s, and after having lived in several European countries in the late 1970’s, I was accustomed to thinking of international communication links as being slow connecting, unreliable and expensive. My experience in 1995 connecting to a web server located in Alton, England, while living in Davis, California, immediately transformed my perspective on national boundaries, the meaning of distance and the possibilities of global citizenship.
The second experience that I had while helping my son research information for an elementary school report was related to his report on the baseball legend Hank Aaron. We drove to the local public library and searched the shelves for books on the life and career of Hank Aaron. The only books related to Hank Aaron that we could find were older books that had scant and outdated information. After we returned home with the few books that we could find on Hank Aaron, I decided to enter Hank Aaron’s name in the Altavista search engine on my personal computer. To my amazement, Altavista immediately found a web site dedicated to Hank Aaron that was linked to the Atlanta Braves baseball team. The Hank Aaron web site contained a detailed personal biography for Hank Aaron along with many photographs depicting Hank Aaron from birth to his contemporary years. Of course the Hank Aaron web site also contained detailed information and many photographs related to Hank Aaron’s phenomenal career playing baseball while breaking down many “color barriers” in American professional baseball. Additionally, in what was “cutting edge” Internet technology for 1995, the web site also contained brief video clips that documented milestones in Hank Aaron’s professional baseball career.
For someone who had spent a large part of his life reading and performing research in university libraries and in public libraries, the experiences I had in 1995 while researching my son’s name and while researching Hank Aaron’s baseball career on the Internet precipitated a fundamental change in my perspective on many of the most important assets and activities in my life. Yet, in many respects, the technologies that I used in 1995 to help my son research his school papers are now quaint, obsolete and intolerably primitive for most people who have even a basic familiarity with personal computers, smart phones and the Internet.
One of the current popular themes in literature, film and drama is the pervasive intrusion of technologies into all aspects of human social life, human economic life and human political life. Most people proactively attempt to keep up with technological innovation due to the perceived benefits of being able to use new technologies in their professional and personal lives. Both human beings on an individual level and organizations on a macro level are often overwhelmed by the speed of technological innovation and by the unforeseen consequences of utilizing new technologies.
Privacy concerns and security concerns are issues for both individuals and organizations in the new Internet age. Target stores and Home Depot stores have recently experienced computer network security breeches where hackers have obtained personal information and credit card information for tens of millions of Target customers and for tens of millions of Home Depot customers. In the past week, the IRS and the federal Office of Personnel Administration have announced computer network security breeches that have compromised detailed personal information for several million taxpayers and for every single federal employee, including all members of the US armed forces and all members of US federal law enforcement agencies.
The US government recently concluded that the Chinese (PRC) government was behind the intrusion into the federal Office of Personnel Administration computer networks and that the Chinese government now has all personnel files for all people who have worked for the US government since 1980. Included in the personnel files for all US government employees that were ex-filtrated by the Chinese government were the 120 page security clearance investigation reports compiled for all people who needed a security clearance to perform their work for the US government. The Chinese government now has detailed personal and professional information relating to all the people who have worked for the US government since 1980, including people who perform sensitive national security duties for the US State Department, the US military, US law enforcement agencies and US intelligence agencies.
Not only is the US government at risk of data ex-filtration from international threats, but the US government is also at risk for internal data ex-filtration by US government employees like Bradley Manning and by US government contractors like Edward Snowden. Bradley Manning downloaded nearly one million files from US defense department computer networks and gave the files to Wikileaks for investigation and for publication. Similarly, Edward Snowden downloaded nearly two million data files from NSA computer networks and gave some of the data files to Wikileaks. Just last week, the Telegraph UK newspaper published a report that alleged that both China and Russia had somehow obtained nearly one million of the files that Edward Snowden had ex-filtrated and that they had been able to decrypt the information contained in the files.
The widespread global utilization of personal computers, smart phones, computer networks and the Internet has occurred within a very brief twenty year history of the commercial development of the Internet. The pervasive spread and utilization of computer technology and Internet related technologies has already more significantly transformed global human civilization than any other technological revolution in human history. Rapid technological change and rapid economic change precipitated by rapid technological change have historically been associated with social instability and fundamental political change. The ability of human beings as individuals and as members of social organizations to effectively manage and control the consequences of pervasive technological change and pervasive economic change has been challenged by past technological revolutions and will certainly be challenged by the current computer revolution, the current Internet revolution and the current globalization revolution.