The distribution and sheer volume of information has expanded massively over the last 500 years. Each new technology – from the early days of printing (see here ) to mass-produced books, and on through telegraphy, the telephone, radio, television, communications satellites and computers – had huge repercussions.
The 21st century kindled a new information revolution as the Internet magnified the impact of computers and delivered once unthinkable volumes of information to anyone who owned a mobile phone or other portable device.
Computing methods have been in use since before the Second World War, but the need to break enemy codes (particularly the German Enigma code) during the war gave a particular boost to computing theory and computational machines. The early computing devices had specialized tasks to perform, and it was not until 1946 that Americans built the first general-purpose computer. It was funded by the US army, and military needs have funded many advances in computer technology since then.
At first, computers were bulky, expensive devices. The biggest changes came when innovations such as the silicon microchip made computers, and computerized devices, small and cheap enough to acquire a mass market.
From the late 1970s, computers became widely available as office and then household tools. The Internet, which had its origins in 1960s research into robust computer communications networks, took a step forward in the 1980s with the development of the Internet protocol suite (the networking model that allows computers to communicate information). The invention of the World Wide Web in 1989 opened up the Internet to many more people, as well as enabling the growth of email, which for many users has entirely replaced sending letters through the post.
Improvements in network computing enabled interlinked machines to work as a single, much more powerful machine, removing the expense of a supercomputer. Developed in the 1990s, this technique anticipated the later ‘cloud-computing’ method by which large numbers of machines were combined. ‘Cloud computing’ drew on the processing power that exists in the ‘cloud’ created by the general use of computers, and does not require their physical presence. This practice gave small computers a boost: miniaturization was crucial in popularizing new consumer goods such as mobile phones, laptop computers and portable media players.
‘Cyberspace is where a long-distance phone call takes place. Cyberspace is where the bank keeps your money. Where your medical records are stored. All of this stuff is out there somewhere. There is really no point in thinking about its geographical location. Information is extra-geographical.’
William Gibson, US science-fiction writer, interviewed in 1995. Gibson had first used the term ‘cyberspace’ in a 1982 short story to denote ‘the mass consensual hallucination’ of computer networks
The information revolution draws on cultural and commercial factors as well as technological advances. Demand for such products derives from greater literacy and greater wealth, as well as lower costs of production. World literacy levels, low in 1900, have steadily risen since. Greater average per capita wealth has also made it easier to acquire the new devices, and the world of data they contain. This rise in wealth was particularly apparent in China and India, but was also seen in other areas where the use of new technology grew, such as East Africa.
On top of the flood of information that the touch of a button now summons, there have been exponential rises in computing power, speed and data-storage capacity. More than 2 billion people around the world have access to the Internet. Every minute, YouTube users upload around 50 hours of video, while Facebook users share about 700,000 items of content. Future advances may expand ‘the Internet of things’ as more and more devices are connected to and operate via the Internet, from cars to heart monitors and home appliances. A growing proportion of the economy is devoted to the development and marketing of computer-related goods and services that no one would have dreamed they would ever want or need a decade or so ago.
Controlling the internet
The spread of information technologies drew new attention to a host of issues about open access and control, especially as the Internet became a more political medium. Virtual communities were created without regard to distance, national borders or social mores, and the Internet became a focal point for a range of human interactions, from dating to political agitation.
Those states that want to suppress such new freedoms tend to focus on surveillance and censorship. At the same time, there is genuine concern about the weakness of states in the face of terrorist and similar threats, whose early signs might be detected by monitoring emails and social media postings.
The conflict between protecting the security of the public and the privacy of the individual will clearly continue into the future. Governments are already seeking to access encrypted information, while technology companies seek to offer privacy to those who demand it, and ordinary users face dilemmas about how best to respond to these challenges.