The article "Historical Pragmatism and the Internet" by James W. Carey is a look at the implications of trying to read the impact that technologies have on the future and understanding of culture. Carey cautions the common attempt that people make to foresee the impact a particular technology is going to have on society and culture. Carey reflects how people assume, or perhaps hope, that the future is a smaller world, that the boundaries between different societies and cultures becomes continually smaller.
People naturally desire to predict the future and create a world to look forward to or to fear. As mentioned by Carey, many people do this without actually looking at the lessons of history of the facts of what may or may not manifest itself in actuality. There is, of course, nothing wrong with predictions and thoughts about the future and implications technology may have on our culture and society. It is important to allow these things to be nothing more than predictions and thoughts, because the future can determine itself in any unpredictable way. The article that Carey wrote relates to an article from 1995 published in Newsweek, where the author made predictions about the internet that ended up becoming almost entirely false. The article managed to wrongly predict many things that became the most popular aspects of the internet. Like Carey said, and like the Newsweek article proves, predictions about technology and the future are innately difficult to accurately predict. Predictions can be made, but a review of history helps to avoid the mistakes that are repeated over and over again.
Mark Heffernan
Newsweek article: http://www.newsweek.com/1995/02/26/the-internet-bah.html
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