The Revolution is being DIGITZED.

[athelind]

One of the tags in my list is "The Revolution Will Be DIGITIZED". It's a play, of course, on the title of the song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. I first used the phrase as the title of a PoliSci paper I wrote around '92 or '93, concerning the role of new communications technologies in the fall of the Soviet Union and the sociopolitical implications of the then-emerging internet.

I've used the tag for a variety of reasons since I introduced it a couple of years ago, some overtly political and some ... less than revolutionary. Yesterday's Writer's Block post was the first time I really felt that I was using it in the sense I originally intended, back when I first wrote that paper.

Yes. The Internet, the cell phone, GPS/GIS, desktop publishing and 3D printing ... this is world-changing technology. It has changed the world. If you're reading this, it has changed your everyday life, the things that you consider "normal" and "routine".

And it is poised to change it even more. It's facilitating real revolution, producing "regime change" more deep-seated than invasion, occupation, and installation of "reliable" puppets ever could.

Mightier than the sword indeed, my friends.

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Cross-posted to unitarian_jihad.

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Comments

[bfdragon.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that two of those 5 things came directly from the seeds of the DOD, and two others indirectly benefited greatly from the seeds planted by DOD projects (much of the radio communication technology that went into cell phones, much of the talent that had been working at Xeorx PARC).

Nono, this isn't to say that the Military Industrial Complex needs more money. Rather, I think it's a sign that government sponsored science and engineering is doing a lot more for us then people think perhaps. These technologies that are some of the corner stones of employment in the US right now owe a great deal to the money that came from the taxes that ran the government all those years.

[castleclear.livejournal.com]

It might be nice IF those technologies funded by taxpayer dollars could yield a significant Return on Investment to the taxpayer. It might even be considered equitable and fair.

[castleclear.livejournal.com]

I presume that is one reason why President Obama is going ahead and fully funding the U.S. Military. Unlike private contract Mercenaries, the U.S. Military has a highly developed system that includes accountability (nevermind the U.S. Army losing some national monuments now up for auction by the private company who presumably acquired them from the private contract company hired to clean them - source: Washington Post but found on a friend's livejournal.)

If worst comes to worst, perhaps the U.S. Military will stand with the People should We the People need to stand fast as Egypt did. If mom and dad, aunt and uncle are among the protestors, will the soldier shoot to kill? (I sure hope we don't have to learn the answer to that question.)

[zeeth_kyrah]

It's a question of who reminds the soldiers of their duty: the People are the highest authority in the Constitution, even if most civilians can't give them orders; but someone will argue to shoot because you're told because somehow the People are contravening the Constitution by petitioning for redress of grievances.

[castleclear.livejournal.com]

Presumably that in part is the reason for the watering down in the quality of U.S. public education K-12 so that the populace is less educated and less informed than the one that preceded it. Further, our culture extols the Entertainment industy (in which I lump the sports guilds of the NFL, AFL, NBA and so on), revering Celebrity, youthful good looks and money, whilst denigrating education and other homely values.