Page 50 - Communications Satellites Global Change Agents

26 PELTON

Unbridled technological change, instantaneous free-market globalism, and e-
commerce on the Internet may very well contain doses of "teleshock" that cancel
out the positive gains of "telepower." This book tries to explain not only the scope
and type of satellite-driven change, but also where restraint and prudent limits to
electronic technology may well be needed. The future of satellites and their op-
portunity for aiding future generations are thus likely to be conditional. The chal-
lenge is to devise "smarter and wiser" systems rather than simply "faster and
broader-reaching" networks.
Recent demonstrations at the meetings of the World Economic Forum, the
World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and other forums where technology,
free trade, and capitalism are promoted have shown that the circle of concern goes
beyond fundamentalist religious zealots. There is a wide range of critics who
would like to see satellites and information networks in the 21st century being
marshaled to create new and more enlightened forms of modern society, but not
promote unbridled technological growth as envisioned by pro-technology gurus
(Fuller, 1971, chap. 1). Labor unions, environmentalists, social reformers, and
others fear "teleshock" tremors still to come.
We can indeed still use satellites, fiber, and innovative wireless technology to
create a new type of future that transcends the goals of 19th-century capitalist-led
democratic liberalism as defined by Adam Smith and John Locke. As bright and
intelligent as those political economists were in their day, their ideas are now out
of date.
We could indeed use some innovative thoughts about the interrelationship be-
tween democracy and technology. We may well need to invent some new institu-
tions and political philosophies to cope with the 21st century. We probably need
to sort out ways to use our most modern of information technologies in a better
way. We may need to use our technology to fuel societal and environmental pres-
ervation rather than faster growth. We should move toward "electronic decentral-
ization" so that we can move ideas rather than people and avoid the folly of putt-
ing all of our people and resources in huge and environmentally unsound mega-
structures like the World Trade Center.

CHANGING EDUCATION, HEALTH, DEMOGRAPHICS,
AND PATTERNS OF WORK
We may need to use our technology to re-instill intellectual freedom in education.
Likewise we may wish to use technology to create "smart market" systems that re-
connect supply and demand to meet longer term social and economic goals rather
than short-term profits. There are many lessons that the Enron collapse, 9/11, and
the widening ozone hole in our atmosphere can teach us if we would only listen.
Better use of our communications systems is just one of these lessons.
We could use 21 st-century satellite and fiber networks to restructure and im-
prove the nature of our cities, reinvent our institutions, and reinvent the fabric of