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Cyber-utopianism,web-utopianism,digital utopianism, orutopian internet is a subcategory oftechnological utopianism and the belief that online communication helps bring about a more decentralized,democratic, and libertarian society.[1][2][3][4] The desired values may also be privacy and anonymity, freedom of expression, access to culture and information or also socialist ideals leading todigital socialism.[5][4]
The Californian Ideology is a set of beliefs combining bohemian andanti-authoritarian attitudes from thecounterculture of the 1960s withtechno-utopianism and support forneoliberal economic policies.[6] These beliefs are thought by some to have been characteristic of the culture of the IT industry inSilicon Valley and the West Coast of the United States during the dot-com boom of the 1990s.[7]Adam Curtis connects it toAyn Rand'sObjectivist philosophy in the filmAll Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (TV series). Such an ideology of digital utopianism fueled the first generation of Internet pioneers.[8]
One of the first initiatives associated with digital technologies and utopianism was the ChileanProject Cybersyn.[9] Project Cybersyn was an attempt ofcybernetic governance for implementation ofsocialist planning under PresidentSalvador Allende. The bookTowards a New Socialism argues against the perception of digital socialism as a utopia.[10] Digital socialism can be categorized as areal utopian project.[11]
Cyber socialism is a name used for the practise offile sharing as a violation ofintellectual property rights and whose legalisation was not expected - a utopia.[12][13]
Cyber-utopianism serves as a base forcyber-populism.Electronic democracy as suggested and practised byPirate Parties is being seen to be an idea motivated by cyber-utopianism.[14] In Italy, theFive Star Movement extensively uses cyber-utopian rhetoric, promisingdirect democracy and better environmental regulations through theWeb. In this case, they used the wonder ordigital sublime associated withdigital technologies to develop their political vision.[1]
Cyber-utopianism has been considered a derivative ofextropianism,[15] in which the ultimate goal is to upload human consciousness to the internet.Ray Kurzweil, especially inThe Age of Spiritual Machines, writes about a form of cyber-utopianism known as the Singularity; wherein, technological advancement will be so rapid that life will become experientially different, incomprehensible, and advanced.[16]
Hospitality exchange services (HospEx) aresocial networking services where hosts offerhomestays for free. They are agift economy and are shaped byaltruism and are examples of cyber-utopianism.[17][18]
The existence of this belief has been documented since the beginning of the internet. The bursting of thedot-com bubble diminished the majority-utopian views of cyberspace; however, modern day "cyber skeptics" continue to exist. They believe in the idea thatinternet censorship andcyber sovereignty allows repressive governments to adapt their tactics to respond to threats by using technology against dissenting movements.[19]Douglas Rushkoff notes that, "ideas, information, and applications now launching on Web sites around the world capitalise on the transparency, usability, and accessibility that the internet was born to deliver".[19] In 2011,Evgeny Morozov, in his 2011 bookThe Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, critiqued the role of cyber-utopianism in global politics;[20] stating that the belief is naïve and stubborn, enabling the opportunity for authoritarian control and monitoring.[21] Morozov notes that "former hippies", in the 1990s, are responsible for causing this misplaced utopian belief: "Cyber-utopians ambitiously set out to build a new and improved United Nations, only to end up with a digital Cirque du Soleil".[21]
Criticism in the past couple of decades has been made out against positivist readings of the internet. In 2010,Malcolm Gladwell, argued his doubts about the emancipatory and empowering qualities of social media in an article inThe New Yorker. In the article, Gladwell criticisesClay Shirky for propagating and overestimating the revolutionary potential of social media: "Shirky considers this model of activism an upgrade. But it is simply a form of organizing which favors the weak-tie connections that give us access to information over the strong-tie connections that help us persevere in the face of danger."[22]
Cyber-utopianism has also been compared to asecular religion for the postmodern world.[23] In 2006,Andrew Keen wrote inThe Weekly Standard thatWeb 2.0 is a "grand utopian movement" similar to "communist society" as described byKarl Marx.[24]
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