{"id":3285,"date":"2021-03-26T18:27:23","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T22:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/?p=3285"},"modified":"2021-03-26T18:27:23","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T22:27:23","slug":"the-network-is-still-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/the-network-is-still-here\/","title":{"rendered":"The network is still here"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of days ago I saw a modest little item on “Memex 1.1<\/a>,” John Naughton’s web home. As I’ve noted earlier in this Lenten season, I’ve begun reading blogs again as well as writing them, and Naughton’s blog was one of the very first I re-subscribed to. The little item was this notice:<\/p>\n

Memoir of a recovering Utopian<\/h2>\n

I was invited to give a brief talk on March 16 at a (virtual) symposium on the history of UK computing from the 1950s to the 1990s organised by the Royal Society. The video is here<\/a> if you\u2019re interested. It\u2019s short \u2014 just under 5 minutes. (It\u2019d have been longer if I had a Nobel prize, I guess.)<\/p>\n

When I saw the title, “Memoir of a Recovering Utopian,” I felt sick at heart. Here would be another lament by an early celebrant of the Internet’s and the Web’s potential who who tell us about his gnawing disillusionment, or perhaps even his sense of shame for ever having promoted a hopeful view of this global lightspeed telecommunications network. I don’t like to read these, for lots of reasons; certainly one of the most powerful reasons is that from time to time I feel pretty gnawed and ashamed myself. But only sometimes. As I say, I’m a teacher: with regard to human capacities and ingenuity, I’m committed to hope, no matter how I feel on any given day.<\/p>\n

Today I finally felt strong (or numb) enough to watch the video. I was delighted, comforted, and encouraged that the title was misleading. Naughton is not a “recovering” Utopian the way folks are recovering addicts. I’m not entirely sure why he gave the video this title. Perhaps the “recovery” in this case is the recovery of<\/em> utopianism. I like to think so. I offer in support of my reading the way the video ends. The internetwork is still here. The technical framework we need to build a better Web are here. It may still be possible to tear down the inimically walled gardens and use this gift hopefully and justly and not in thrall to late-stage data-mining market capitalism.<\/p>\n

I offer only one friendly amendment to Naughton’s list of what we underestimated as the Web turned toward toxicity: not just the somnolence of governments, but in the main, the somnolence of higher education, too. Or perhaps something worse than sleepiness, in both cases.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, as Naughton so beautifully says, without the essential hopefulness that underlies utopianism, we’re done for.<\/p>\n

I do believe we can create the evidence to support our hopefulness by continuing to work to build that better world.<\/p>\n

I’ve followed Naughton’s work for nearly twenty years now. I am glad to see there is a\u00a0light that never goes out. A candle in the window<\/a>, still.<\/p>\n