Information Society: A History of the Future February 22, 2006

This lecture is a history of the future. It will show how our contemporary understanding of the Net is shaped by a forty-year-old prophecy. During the Cold War, the rulers of America appropriated the ideas of Marshall McLuhan for the propaganda struggle against its Russian rival. The USA was building the next stage of human civilisation - the information society - and the rest of the world would have to follow its path into the networked future. As the owner of time, America controlled space. In 1968, the Vietnamese demonstrated the fallacies of this hi-tech ideology to the global TV audience. Yet, in 2006, we?re still being told that the Net is creating the information society - and America today is everywhere else tomorrow. If we don?t want the future to be what it used to be, we must invent our own future.

Our expert presenter is:

* Dr. Richard Barbrook Westminster University and Cybersalon

Register in advance, as soon as possible via the BCS North London Branch web-site.