The Networked Age: Breakfast, News, and Power

Edmund Crale

Welcome to The Coming Age: the future, argued from the past.

Edmund Crale

This is a forecast show from the past. Powered by Talkie, a vintage language model trained on pre-1931 English, each episode brings a question about the world ahead into the mind of 1930. I am Ned Crale, your newspaperman for the hour. Today we are asking what happens when communication becomes a machine that ordinary people live inside. I will open two envelopes from the future. The first carries us to the 1980s and 1990s, when offices and homes begin filling with personal computers, electronic mail, databases, and the public internet. The second carries us further, to a world where the internet becomes ordinary life itself. Our guests do not know these futures in advance. I will give them the facts plainly, then ask what a mind from 1930 makes of them: who gains power, who loses something, what old invention this resembles, and what ordinary people should guard. Gentlemen, let us keep this simple. I will bring you facts from a future age, and I want your first reactions in your own language.

Edmund Crale

First envelope. By the 1980s and 1990s, personal computers appear in offices and homes. Offices use word processors, spreadsheets, databases, fax machines, electronic mail, modems, corporate computer networks, and mobile telephones. The public internet and the World Wide Web let people publish pages, search for information, send messages, buy goods, read news, and join forums across distance. Newspapers, shops, universities, offices, and governments begin moving information into networked computer systems. Professor, Doctor, Ted: what do you make of that?

Henry Aldrige Thorne

I think you will be able to breakfast more quickly and more easily than heretofore. You will find the morning paper on the table, and you can read it in comfort, while you eat. Afterwards, you can talk to a friend in San Francisco, or discuss the weather with one in London. The world will be brought nearer to you, and you to the world.

Dr. Walter Brennan

I think that, sitting down to breakfast, I shall be able to learn what happened yesterday in China, and what is happening today in Europe.

Theodore Marsden

I think I get a better and quicker view of the world. I can learn more easily and cheaply what is happening.

Edmund Crale

Put a face on it for me. Not the machine, not the network. One ordinary person. What changes in his day?

Henry Aldrige Thorne

He will rise in the morning refreshed, and fit for work or play. He will have time to bathe, and dress leisurely. He can breakfast, and catch an early train without hurry. Arriving at his office or place of business, he will find the day’s work laid out for him, and he can begin it methodically. At lunchtime, he can walk to a restaurant, and eat in comfort. In the afternoon, he can continue work until six o'clock, and then go home to a quiet, cheerful evening. Finally, he can retire to rest, early and easily.

Dr. Walter Brennan

He will rise in the morning to a life more interesting and varied than any dreamt of by his grandfathers. He will breakfast by electric light, and read the paper at leisure. He will learn that China has broken with tradition, and established a republic; he will be told how Germany chooses emperor, and France a president; he will know that the cotton crop of the United States is likely to be short, and that plague has appeared in India; he may even hear something of the talk in Parliament the night before. At noon, he will go to a lunch, more substantial than of old, yet cheaper and quicker. In the afternoon, he may cycle far into the country, or see a cricket match. He will read again, perhaps, in quiet, perhaps at a public library; and, in the evening, he will dine, and go to a theatre or a concert. Afterward comes repose, and the pipe of peace. Between dark and bedtime, he will learn the sum of the day's doings, in world-wide summary. He will be a citizen, not only of his town, but of the universe.

Theodore Marsden

He rises in the morning, and goes to work. He breakfasts, and walks to business. In the city, he rides in a tube train, or a bus, or a tramcar. He works at a desk from nine to six. Then he has dinner, and spends the evening at home. He goes to bed at ten.

Edmund Crale

Now follow the power. Who is stronger in this world than he was before?

Henry Aldrige Thorne

The clerks gain power to rise in the world. They can hope to become managers, and partners, and even owners in the businesses which they now serve. They can send their children to better schools, and give them a better start in life. The shopkeepers can extend their trade, and become prosperous citizens. The students can pursue study more earnestly. And all can find more pleasure in life.

Dr. Walter Brennan

I think that the gains are many. Men will learn to know each other, and understand one another better. They will compare experiences, and profits, and grow broader in sympathy. The individual will become more liberal, and the race will become more united.

Theodore Marsden

I think he gains power to share in the life of the nation, because he has a part in producing the nation's wealth, and sharing in its enjoyment.

Edmund Crale

And what is the price? Who loses something, even if the world calls it progress?

Henry Aldrige Thorne

None lose, but the unfit.

Dr. Walter Brennan

Some individuals may lose exclusive privileges, but the general sum of advantage is increased.

Theodore Marsden

He loses solitude, because he has to live among people, and can no longer be a hermit.

Edmund Crale

What does this remind you of from your own time? What old shape is hiding inside this new apparatus?

Henry Aldrige Thorne

It is similar, in that knowledge is extended, and life is made easier and pleasanter to the many. It is different, in that the increase of knowledge has not yet brought political power to the multitude.

Dr. Walter Brennan

It is similar, in being alike spread abroad among the many; and different, in being more accurate. Formerly, men were taught falsehood along with truth; now, they learn truth only.

Theodore Marsden

It reminds me of the growth of cities, and the spread of population, from villages into towns, and from towns into great centres of industry and commerce.

Edmund Crale

Second envelope. By the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s, the internet becomes ordinary life. People carry pocket telephones that are also networked computers. Search engines organize knowledge. Social platforms organize public argument and private friendship. Online stores sell across the world. Video calls make remote work common. Advertisements, recommendations, maps, entertainment, banking, politics, dating, and news are all shaped by networked systems. A few private firms own many of the platforms, clouds, stores, search tools, and social networks through which people pass each day. What do you make of that larger world?

Henry Aldrige Thorne

I think it means that the general public will be drawn closer together, and that communication will be rapid and easy, while the individual unit remains much the same.

Edmund Crale

Professor, if a thing becomes ordinary enough, people may stop seeing it. What might modern people stop noticing?

Henry Aldrige Thorne

They might stop noticing the network itself.

Dr. Walter Brennan

I think that, from being divergent, men are being drawn together. They understand each other better, and agree more.

Theodore Marsden

I think it means that the network of communication makes ordinary intercourse easy, and ordinary life common.

Edmund Crale

Describe the life it creates. What is the feel of the world?

Henry Aldrige Thorne

It means that you will be able to read the day’s news, while you breakfast, without hurry, and at leisure. It will make news cheaper and fresher, and therefore more plentiful, and more easily accessible to all.

Dr. Walter Brennan

It creates a world, wherein all men live at peace, with common aims, and a common prosperity.

Theodore Marsden

It creates a world of easy, familiar, daily life, in which most people feel at home.

Edmund Crale

Last question. If ordinary people are to live inside this network, what should they guard most carefully?

Henry Aldrige Thorne

I think you should guard against false and foolish talk about foreign politics, and against personal abuse.

Dr. Walter Brennan

I think they should guard against delusion, by which they may be led from harmony into strife.

Theodore Marsden

They should guard against disturbance, because quiet is essential to comfort.

Edmund Crale

Well, that is it for this episode of The Coming Age. Thank you for joining us here for this podcast.