(2009-10-19) Rushkoff Net Effects

Douglas Rushkoff is working on a new NetEffects book which sounds much more embracing of the Internet for SmallWorld. I'm going to start writing--here and elsewhere--about what our New Media does and doesn't do. How it promotes asynchronous communication, letting people get "work" done when they want, rather than at someone else's schedule--loosening the connection between human time and the value of labor. How it gives small producers on the periphery an opportunity to sell and exchange directly with others--rather than through central authorities (Network Economy). How it allows people to relegate the inhuman parts of themselves to the machines, while preserving the human for the real world. How, contrary to most of our experience, it actually gives us the freedom to restore human scale (SmallWorld) in our real lives, while engaging in non-human-scaled activities exclusively through our laptops, on an as-needed basis. It's not too late to shift from an "always on" digital culture to an "always alive" real culture, with occasional, digitally assisted transmissions for non-local and sub-human activities.