Page 49 - Communications Satellites Global Change Agents

1. SATELLITES AS WORLDWIDE CHANGE AGENTS 25

out our planet. There is fear as well as hostility expressed by those who resist the
inevitable changes that modern science and technology make possible and con-
stantly accelerate. This book must address such issues because it is focused on the
change, innovation, and progress that satellites have brought to the world. Here is
but one example.
Algeria was the first developing country to establish a domestic satellite sys-
tem. For the Algerian desert people, change came quickly. Algerian government
officials leased space segment capacity from the Intelsat global satellite system
and then bought earth stations from GTE to link its major regional cities together
in 1974 and 1975. The thought was to bring telephone and some evening TV news
to remote locations for the first time. For centuries, the bazaars in these desert
towns had opened at sunrise and closed at sundown, but in only a few days the
markets closed at 5:00 p.m. because that was when the satellite TV shows began.
Satellites (as well as VCRs) brought "forbidden fruit" to many traditional cul-
tures, and the religious leaders were the first to feel the attack on their society, cul-
ture, and religion. It is no accident that the most rapid growth of VCR ownership
in the 1970s and 1980s came in the Middle East. It was such devices that allowed
forbidden programming to be seen at last.
Satellite technology has been a "hand maiden" of change and innovation to
global society and culture now for four decades. It has enabled not only new tech-
nology to evolve, but for it to be broadly shared. It has also been a source of cul-
tural invasion and change more powerful than Alexander the Great and Genghis
Khan could have ever dreamed of having at their command. The satellite revolu-
tion is thus only a part of a global torrent of change that robotics, biotechnology,
artificial technology, fiber optics, computers, the Internet, TV, VCRs, DVDs, and
Spandex have brought to an unsuspecting world. During the age of satellites, the
world population has expanded by many billions. Fundamentalists from the most
traditional of societies are fearful of this change—and for good reason.

THE NEED TO COPE WITH "TELEPOWER" AND "TELESHOCK"

The shape and form of this E-Sphere will change to reflect the stark realities of a
global culture in conflict. For years satellites and fiber have created super-speed
information networks. These powerful tools have created more and more central-
ization in the nodes of global civilization located in New York, Los Angeles,
Washington, DC, Paris, London, Berlin, Tokyo, Moscow, Beijing, Shanghai, Sin-
gapore, and other centers of power.
New concerns about terrorism, urban pollution, energy consumption, traffic
congestion, and soaring real estate values could alter the shape of change
and modernization. One of the key lessons that should have been learned from
9/11—namely, avoid overcentralization and employ telecommuting more—
were largely lost.