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Technology Can Transform Society
teletextYou can’t make this stuff up …. this was a headline in The New York Times. Full article here : STUDY SAYS TECHNOLOGY COULD TRANSFORM SOCIETY.
I heard the other day that a dog bit a man. OF COURSE Technology Can Transform Society. It already has done - over and over again - for thousands of years. What a stupid headline.
Now - in fairness, the article was dated 1982. So, stupid headline aside - let’s review. By the end of the century (11 and 1/2 years ago as I write) …
one-way and two-way home information systems, called teletext and videotex, will penetrate deeply into daily life, with an effect on society as profound as those of the automobile and commercial television earlier in this century.
AND
The report warned that the new technology would raise difficult issues of privacy and control that will have to be addressed soon to ’’maximize its benefits and minimize its threats to society.
ANd
The home will double as a place of employment, with men and women conducting much of their work at the computer terminal
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A new profession of information ‘’brokers’’ and ‘’managers’’ will emerge, serving as ‘’gatekeepers,’’ monitoring politicians and corporations and selectively releasing information to interested parties.