Date: Wed, 2 Feb 94 16:38:07 PST
From: RISKS Forum <risks@csl.sri.com>
Subject: RISKS DIGEST 15.44

RISKS-LIST: RISKS-FORUM Digest  Weds 2 February 1994  Volume 15 : Issue 44

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Date: Tue, 1 Feb 1994 12:06:51 -0800
From: Phil Agre <pagre@ucsd.edu>
Subject: Risks of cliche collisions on the information superhighway

The 1 Feb 1994 Wall Street Journal's front page center column is about the
metaphors generated by the phrase "information superhighway", which (all are
reported to agree) Al Gore coined by analogy to the US interstate highway
system.  What the article, like the vast majority of recent articles on the
topic, is the whole point of the "highway" metaphor, which is the proposition
that long-distance vehicle/information transfer may well be a natural
monopoly, thus calling for the creation of some kind of public utility.  This
is a fairly spectacular example of the organized forgetting that goes on in
the "agenda setting" process in US politics (and those, no doubt, of other
countries, in their own ways).  The risk here is that these semantical magic
tricks may in the end deprive the public of the information infrastructure
they deserve.

Evidence on this count is readily available, it so happens, in the 2/1/94 New
York Times (business section, page C6), where we are told that investors are
terrified that the Bell Atlantic - TCI merger might actually "lead to a
destructively competitive "two-wire world", where phone and cable companies"
would construct competing networks.  Although the analysts are alarmed, Bell
Atlantic has reassured its investors that it will be doing its best to avoid
that scenario by focusing first on relatively high-profit (i.e.,
uncompetitive) markets.

Heads up.

Phil Agre, UCSD

   [We are going to see all sorts of metaphors springing up on the
   InfoSuperhighway, such as speeding (illicit acts), speedtraps (network
   monitoring to detect misuse), parking lots (traffic congestion),
   StopAndShop (overload from 300 channels of home shopping), deprogramming
   services (for the compulsive shopper), and designated drivers (the
   device drivers you can trust).  Maybe even BurmaShave signs scattering
   doggerel poetry along the way for the oldtimers.  PGN]

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End of RISKS-FORUM Digest 15.44
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