Hype List
1. Neo-Luddism Resisting technology in the face of an overwhelming digital revolution may be noble, but it sure seems futile. Even the most eloquent Neo-Luddites – from Sven Birkerts to Theodore Roszak – admit their attitudes are quixotic. It's this rhetorical tactic that makes them hard to assail. How can you contend with someone who agrees that his or her position is hopeless from the start? But, finally, this acquiescence makes their arguments irrelevant. In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that the real Neo-Luddites are engineers working undercover in Silicon Valley. How else can you explain the constant stream of bug-ridden and hard-to-use products being released?
2. Net Security I always assumed that as the Net became more commonplace and as the electronic frontier became the electronic office, media hype about hackers would disappear. Hackers would be no more intriguing than teenage shoplifters. Yet, despite the media's increasing Net savvy, hackers remain front-page material. The public's fascination with hackers doesn't seem to stem from a prurient interest in the forbidden, but from sheer awe of people who travel freely and effortlessly in the digital realm. Hackers are 20th-century mystics, capable of understanding and manipulating a secret world that confounds the rest of us.
Current Position Position Last Month Months on List
| Neo-Luddism| 1 | 5 | 2
| Net Security| 2 | 1 | 2
| Direct-Broadcast Satellites| 3 | – | 1
| The Microsoft Network| 4 | – | 1
| Multiuser Games| 5 | – | 1
3. Direct-Broadcast Satellites It's the revenge of the airwaves. Just as broadcast television watched its viewers get snatched away by cable TV, now the cable industry is facing competition from sophisticated DBS systems. These new satellite systems can beam 150 channels of digital TV into unobtrusive 18-inch dishes at monthly rates well below cable charges. While most cable executives are still in shock (or denial), the more intelligent among them are beefing up infrastructure investments. Cable's key advantage over DBS is its return path from the home – a critical feature for true interactive media and the infobahn.
4. The Microsoft Network The imminent launch of the Microsoft Network has the Internet community mesmerized. Every Microsoft announcement is microscopically analyzed for hints of what's to come. There is no doubt that the network will profoundly change the culture of the Net, but the changes will have less to do with Microsoft policy on, say, acceptable content than with the underlying technology. The Net is closely related to Unix, and the two share similar characteristics: both are hard to use, buggy, and insecure. But they are also easy to change, flexible, and egalitarian – traits that have nourished the Net community. The question now is, What sort of culture will Microsoft promote?
5. Multiuser Games William Gibson came up with the notion of cyberspace while watching teenagers mesmerized by the flickering displays of videogames. It's an image that seems increasingly prescient. From CompuServe's WorldsAway to id Software's Quake, there has been a spate of recent announcements about online multiuser games. These systems will act as electronic theme parks that allow players across the country to interact within a graphical world. The prospect of a visually richer online world is enticing and seems likely to catch on quickly, first for games and then for more sober business applications. Yet there is something repellent about the thought of working in a world designed by Nintendo.
Steve G. Steinberg (hype-list@wired.com)
