Page 18 - Communications Satellites Global Change Agents

PREFACE xvii

Yet these electronic gateways in the sky also offer the opportunity to spew
forth propaganda, prejudice, and misinformation from anywhere to anywhere in
an instant. New satellite systems, such as Worldspace and Wild Blue, have the po-
tential to redefine our world in the blink of an eye. Before regulators know it, in-
novations in satellite technology can quickly make national boundaries amazingly
permeable and potentially obsolete.
Only in time will we truly see the full scale and dimensions of the new infor-
mation systems that modern telecommunications and computer machinery are fu-
riously creating at increasing and unparalleled rates of acceleration. Even if we al-
low that technologically fueled change is far from finished, we see clear evidence
that space telecommunications systems and their "kissing cousins," the other
electronic technologies, are redefining how we live, where we work, and how we
interact with people at home and abroad. Today we have over 1 million electronic
immigrants who live in one country and work in another.
The first to clearly recognize the big picture of how world economic, scientific,
educational, and other systems transcended national systems of knowledge and
communications and interpret these trends for us in a truly coherent way was
probably Tielhard de Chardin. In his writings in the early 20th century, Chardin
described the evolution that has been unfolding since the High Renaissance. He
called this process the Noosphere—the world intellectual climate or network that
allowed humans to share their thoughts and discoveries in largely unfettered
ways. Clearly the interventions of two world wars and now acts of terrorism have
served to close, or at least shrink, the channels of human intellectual intercourse.
Nevertheless, the last half of the 20th century fostered transnational or suprana-
tional invention, encouraged global business and financial systems, and spurred
entertainment and travel to escalate to new heights.
We may still move beyond globalism, the Noosphere, or McLuhan's Global
Village to experience new paradigms via electronic means. The wonder of it all is
that, although satellites and fiber optics are real and tangible, the future they will
enable and stimulate is actually quite unknown. Within the 21st century, we will
encounter a new form of "planetary intellectual, commercial, and cultural ether"
that far exceeds the vision that Chardin imagined at the start of the 20th century.
These new visions have been previously and certainly inadequately described in
such terms as the worldwide mind, the global brain, or E-Sphere, but we know
that a new system of thought awaits us and that our electronic tools are accelerat-
ing our journey to that future.
In the following chapters, we explore how satellite communications—espe-
cially global satellite linkages—came to be, technically, economically, and insti-
tutionally. It is a vivid and interesting history. It is filled with people of imagina-
tion, genius, vision, intrigue, and sometimes avarice. All in all, it is an interesting
and absorbing story.
We also explore how satellites, more than any other technology, gave rise to
global TV, worldwide entertainment networks, and the truly worldwide Inter-