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62 Steve Jones

a society whose members face ever-greater demands on their time
and thought. These demands make it more difficult than ever to en-
gage with others by non-technological means, and shave away the
time we allot to personal interaction. They are but one form of com-
munication, perhaps neither better nor worse than any other, but
they do carry with them their own structuring forces.

Privilege

Among the structuring forces is that of access and it will not be
equal and uniform. To have it so would mean, in social terms for in-
stance, not only provision of hardware and connectivity, but operat-
ing systems so sophisticated as to be stupid, that is, sophisticated
enough to know when users are unsophisticated and then able to
“dumb themselves down.” It would mean the technological equiva-
lent of “a chicken in every pot.” It would mean the establishment of
universal literacy, for, if nothing else, using computer networks re-
quires good reading and writing skills. But, most importantly, it has
already meant the definition of computing as a social necessity.
Will we have information “haves” and “have–nots”? Probably—
we already do, with or without computers. What will be the conse-
quences? That is more difficult to determine. We already have such
a class separation—in some sense those reading this essay are
likely to be “haves,” and others, from different backgrounds, differ-
ent experiences, different opportunities, may be destined to be
“have nots.” There are at least two important questions resulting.
First, what will you do with what you have? Second, what will it be
like to have it?
There is also the matter of privilege in its more mundane sense,
and for those in education, publishing and related fields, this is crit-
ical to understand. Again, the latter sense of privilege is directly re-
lated to the initial lines of force created by the passage (movement,
transportation) of content across new networks of communication.
The more common sense of privilege I wish to invoke here is related
to the lines of force created at right angles to that initial force, the
“magnetic” instead of the “electrical” in terms of electromotion. We
do not have information elites in the sense that the “haves” simply
have more information than others, but in the sense that it is the
“haves” that are organizing information for others, and by so doing
they are undertaking a profoundly socio-epistemological act, gener-
ating the maps, indices, tables of contents, bibliographies, hypertext
links, that others will use to organize not only their research and