Page 51 - Communications Satellites Global Change Agents

1. SATELLITES AS WORLDWIDE CHANGE AGENTS 27

our work and daily lives. The war on terrorism and the problems associated with
efficient education and health care systems could help us devise more humane
patterns of global growth and sustainable development. We could learn that the
most advanced of our satellite and fiber technologies are tools that extend beyond
the narrow realm of business. We can use the satellite systems of the future to cre-
ate interesting and rewarding telecities. These same technologies can help liberate
workers via telecommuting systems and make more effective use of electronic
immigrants.
We may also invent new forms of electronic and cultural educational and
health care systems that replace conventional physical integration with intellec-
tual freedom. These new models of 21st-century development based on electronic
and optical technologies could give new meaning to our understanding of words
like neighborhood, city, or country. The power of satellites to redefine our world
has actually only begun to be tapped in their first 40 years of existence. Out of ad-
versity and questions about the goal of information and media technology in soci-
ety, new answers and new solutions may well be found.
In the 21st century, we will find workers going to their offices electronically,
whether across towns or villages or across the globe. The same electronic restless-
ness and seeking of security via decentralization, plus the desire to reduce costs,
will reinforce patterns of distance education and health care. We will find ways to
use satellite and other information technologies to reduce air and water pollution,
reduce energy consumption, and even transfer property values. It is here that satel-
lites may create new win-win strategies for workers, capitalists, and environmen-
talists. New development and economic growth in the 21 st century may thus be ac-
complished by means of satellite and fiber-based electronic propinquity rather than
by physical adjacencies.
Constantly evolving technology versus the striving by many for stability and tra-
ditional values will be a key part of the story of the 21st century. This book is thus a
series of stories and historical facts that are intertwined with some future specula-
tions about the rise of new global systems. Satellites and other new media are
slowly but surely revealing a new worldwide environment.
We particularly explore what globalism means in this new age—in this amaz-
ing, startling, and frightening new millennium. It seems that both technology and
global consciousness are a one-way gate. Once you go through, you cannot easily
return to the past. In this regard, satellites have proved—for better or worse—to
be one of the most powerful gateways to the future.
In the next few chapters, we relate an interesting, rich, and often untold history,
and we also seek some insights into the future. It is the story of scientists and engi-
neers who developed new technologies, sometimes against the odds and other
times in the face of fierce competition. It is also the story of international conflict
and institutional change and innovation.
Part of the story relates to the cold war and U.S. reactions to postwar condi-
tions and the needs of an increasingly global market place, which puts much more