Events in Iran Prove Bradbury Wrong
Here's one of the more ironic juxtaposition of events in recent memory: Last week, famed science-fiction author (and anti-censorship advocate) Ray Bradbury came out against the Internet — just as the 'Net's ability to evade censorship played a crucial role in advancing the cause of democracy in Iran.
Thu, June 25, 2009
Network World — Here's one of the more ironic juxtaposition of events in recent memory: Last week, famed science-fiction author (and anti-censorship advocate) Ray Bradbury came out against the Internet — just as the 'Net's ability to evade censorship played a crucial role in advancing the cause of democracy in Iran.
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The back story: In 1953, Bradbury published a novel called "Farenheit 451" (named after the temperature at which paper auto-ignites) about a society in which books were burned to prohibit critical thinking. Last week, while defending the role of libraries in society, he belittled the Internet. "The Internet is a big distraction," he reportedly said. "It's meaningless. It's not real."
Meanwhile, almost literally as he spoke, Iranian protesters were using tools like blogs and Twitter to make their case to the outside world -- about as real as it gets.
The Iranian authorities did their best to keep the protests from world view. They restricted journalists to hotel rooms, banned cameras, and cut off SMS texting and access to Facebook and YouTube. But so far they haven't succeeded in censoring the protests: too many volunteers have launched proxy servers to ensure content gets through unscathed. (One of my friends operates such a server — one of his contributions to the cause of global democracy). Even confining journalists to hotel rooms hasn't stopped the flood of tweets, blog posts, and videos as protesters and onlookers alike continue to record events in real time.
It's disappointing that one of science fiction's greatest visionaries should be blind to the power of the 'Net — just as it's having a real-world impact on global politics. President Obama recently warned the Iranian authorities "the world is watching" what's happening in Iran.
We are. And it's the 'Net that lets us see.
Totalitarian regimes everywhere seek control — and they start with control of information flow, whether by spying or censorship. One of the great things about the Internet is that its collaborative, distributed architecture challenges that centralized control, by refusing to permit the existence of a privileged, "official" viewpoint. Every Netizen can capture — and upload — the facts. (Even cutting off Internet access, as the Burmese government did for six weeks, becomes an indication that something's wrong.)
As my friend, colleague, and Network World columnist Andreas Antonopoulos pointed out nearly a decade ago, it's a lot harder to suppress information (or protesters) when every citizen can create his own real-time newsfeed.
My point? Simply this: On this point, Bradbury's wrong. The 'Net is real, and it makes a real difference. It's the 'Net that enables the world to keep watching. And we can't afford to blink when governments (and large companies) seek to control information — either by spying or censorship.
Johnson is president and senior founding partner at Nemertes Research, an independent technology research firm. She can be reached at johna@nemertes.com.
