The other side of cyberspace - interview with professor Manuel Castells - Cover Story

Communication World, March, 1999 by John Gerstner

"The 21st century will not be a dark age. Neither will it deliver to most people the bounties promised by the most extraordinary technological revolution in history. Rather, it may well be characterized by informed bewilderment."

"It is indeed, brave or not, a new world."

"The glut-of-information idea is simply a primitive, misleading, cheap shot of neo-Luddites. There can never be enough information."

"The illusion we can live on a wonderful, shrinking planet, and ignore the 40 percent of the population hardly surviving with less than two dollars a day, is simply self-denial. Epidemics, wars, terrorism and moral outrage will reach us in our protected world."

Could there be any connection between the amazing rise of global information technology and...

...the alarming increase in the sexual exploitation of children? The spread of U.S. militia hate groups and religious fundamentalism? The radical destruction of the patriarchal family? The menacing rise of illegal drug and weapons trafficking by global crime syndicates? The gross income inequality between the world's richest and poorest nations? The alarming and rising number of adults under correctional supervision? The overwhelming sense of confusion in the Information Age?

Unfortunately, yes to all, says Manuel Castells, professor of sociology and planning at the University of California, Berkeley. "The rise of informationalism at the end of this millennium is intertwined with rising inequality and social exclusion throughout the world. The global network society is shaking institutions, transforming cultures, creating wealth and inducing poverty, spurring greed, innovation and hope, while simultaneously imposing hardship and instilling despair. It is indeed, brave or not, a new world."

Castells did not arrive on this dark side of cyberspace easily or lightly. He is almost apologetic for the negative news, as if it were his fault. With the perseverance of a monk and the shrewdness of a very sharp prosecuting attorney, he has spent the past 14 years piecing together the economic, social and political impacts of the new information technology. He is a scientist - he tells it as he finds it.

The fruit of his labor is a 1,500-page encyclopedic trilogy, "The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture" (Blackwell, 1996-98). For his ability to read the underlying currents in contemporary society, Castells is being compared to two earlier sociologists, Karl Marx and Max Weber. Among colleagues, Castells is being called the "first great philosopher of cyberspace," yet most people have yet to hear his name.

The Information Age is undoubtedly the most extensive and original investigation yet of the new global communication revolution. The work is all the more remarkable because Castells faced what he thought was an unforgiving deadline. He learned he had cancer just as he was about to begin writing. Fortunately, the cancer is now in remission.

The Information Age starts with the premise that "a technological revolution, centered around information, is fundamentally altering the way we are born, we live, we learn, we work, we produce, we consume, we dream, we fight, or we die."

As more of people's lives are made up of their daily experiences in the virtual world, our concepts of time and space are radically altered. Castells, born in Spain and author of 17 other books, introduces the terms "timeless time" and "the space of flows" to consider these abstract concepts.

"Timeless time" means that technologies, including bio-technologies, make it possible to manipulate the natural sequence of events (postponing the conception of a baby by in vitro fertilization, for instance) to suit our desires or time zones. The "space of flows" means that the flow of information brings physical spaces into closer contact through network organization.

These changes give rise, says Castells, to "real virtuality." The day-to-day lives of humans (wired ones, at least) more and more depend on the content and meaning of the text, images and sounds streaming into their laptops. This phenomenon raises the real question: If it didn't happen on the Net, did it happen?

Castells's Volume I, "The Rise of the Network Society," documents how far flung networks, powered by digital technology, have become the basic structure and building blocks of society. Networks allow the almost instantaneous flow of information, capital and cultural communication, globally and in real time. "The world is becoming organized not just by a common set of capitalist rules, but by informational capitalism," he says. Unfortunately, those left unwired are doomed to an "informational capitalism black hole."

"By combing the globe ceaselessly for things of value, the network society excludes everything, and everyone, not of value. And those excluded are not just those in 'fourth-world' countries; they are in the South Bronx, or Naples."

Because networks are infinitely adaptable organisms with no center and no geographic boundary, they are more powerful than any company, institution or government. "This means the main political arena is now the media, and the media are not politically answerable," says Castells.