In the dim light of dawn, I was roused by a sound I hadn’t heard in ages. Stumbling groggily toward the source of the piercing beep, I exclaimed, “Why, it’s the old Unix talk program! That quirky full-screen utility—discussed by Douglas Hofstadter in Metamagical Themas—that foreshadowed chat and instant messaging.” Responding to the flashing letters on the green monitor, I quickly typed talk ghost and pressed the RETURN key.
"This is the Ghost of Internet Past," wrote my mysterious correspondent. "NSA, poppy, Castro. I shall show you the Internet in its glorious early days. Tools were clunky back then, but we all studied a bit and learned to understand the medium we were using; and such a wonderful community we built online!"
I remembered what the ghost was talking about. True, 99% of all newsgroups devolved into philosophical spats between leftists and libertarians, and three-quarters of all alerts circulating were hoaxes. Yet, we still harnessed the incredible power of instant global diffusion for some impressive campaigns. Lotus was a major company when an Internet protest forced it to withdraw its consumer spending database product.
"Look, Andy, you were more idealistic back then too," the ghost admonished. "It’s been years since you contributed to free software projects. Look at the dates on these files." A cascade of filenames, dates, and sizes streamed down my screen.
I squinted at the vaguely familiar output format. "Yeah, those dates are old. Where did you dig up that list?"
"Archie," typed the ghost.
"Oh, Ghost," I typed furiously. "What has happened to the spirit of Internet community? Why do so few of the new users understand it?"
"What do you expect once ANS took over the backbone?" spat the ghost. "Canter and Siegel, eye candy, streaming media."
"But mere commercial usage isn’t bad," I replied. "When people trust a medium enough to put the very stuff of life there, it has come of age. Non-profit organizations can be self-serving information hoarders just as much as for-profit ones."
"Damned private-sector hegemonism—"
"Humbug. I’ve heard that all before; you’re putting me to sleep," I typed, and as if to confirm my words, I fell unconscious once again.
Next, I awoke to a chaotic rush of voices. It was as though someone had started dozens of RealPlayer streams simultaneously. The cacophony drowned out any hope of comprehension. "Can anyone make sense of this!" I cried.
A voice rose above the din. "Welcome to the debates over Internet policy. As the Ghost of Internet Present, I have to follow them all."
"What on earth are they talking about?" I demanded.
"Do you mean: what they claim to be discussing, or what they're really discussing?"
"Both, I guess," I answered, perplexed.
"Well," explained the ghost, "they think they're debating which old regulatory models to apply to a revolutionary new space."
"Sounds pretty pointless."
"And that's why so few bother to listen. But really, they're talking about bandwidth."
"Yeah, I've heard of that—won't dark fiber solve everything?"
"That's a '90s panacea," interrupted the ghost scornfully. "The current fad is packet radio. But I wasn't talking about physical bandwidth at all. I meant control. Who has the power to use the Internet? Will it offer job postings for the underprivileged or only stock quotes for the affluent? Can communities grow spontaneously around great works of art, or must they pay a middleman? Should taxpayer-funded research be sold for hundreds of dollars per document or made freely available to all? Who can be reached simply by requesting a name—big corporations or small voices?"
"For goodness' sake," I exclaimed, "why don’t people talk about the issues that way!"
"A few try," replied the ghost, "but as soon as you start examining the legal, social, and implementation implications closely, the answers get so—well, technical."
I wanted to ask more, but my ghost said, "The present is fleeting. I must depart; the Ghost of Internet Future will take my place."
Excitement gripped me. "Oh Ghost of Internet Future," I cried, "show me what glories the medium still has to offer!"
Someone seized my arm and dragged me through labyrinthine streets under gray skies, where no creature tread and no breeze stirred. "Where is the Internet Future?" I yelled. "Where did everyone go?"
"The Internet is gone," said my companion, stooped and hoary.
"How could that be—what could replace its bounty?"
"The international financial institutions have a proprietary satellite-based network, imposing and impenetrable. The entertainment companies release 6500 programs a week, all strictly metered by kilobyte and filtered to isolate controversial content. The electric companies—which always controlled the ultimate pipe, and thus ended up controlling the medium—run the network that activates devices in the home. Everything vendors want is built into circuits costing a thousandth of a penny, rendering software and the culture it fostered obsolete. So there are many separate networks, each specialized and tightly controlled."
"But what about democracy? What about public spaces? Is there no forum for the average citizen?"
The old ghost's wrinkled face cracked in a sputtering, hollow laugh. "Forum? You want a forum? I'll give you a million of them. Every time Consolidated Services, Inc. or Skanditek puts out a new item on their media outlets, they leave space for viewers to post reactions. And they post, and post, and post. Nobody can track the debates..."
"They forgot," I sighed. "People forgot that the Internet enables discussion and community; they acquiesced to an overly pragmatic and impersonal approach that fragmented protocols and media in ways that removed the human element. What can I do to prevent this, Ghost? Tell me what to do when I return to my present life!"
But mists swept over the scene, and the hand of the Ghost of the Internet Future slipped invisibly from mine. "I am fading," it whispered. "The Internet is gone..."
And so I awoke, but I lay with eyes closed and addressed my three ghosts in my thoughts: "I promise I will learn the lessons you taught tonight!
"Ghost of Internet Past, I promise I will learn about the technologies that affect my life so that I can control them.
"Ghost of Internet Present, I will talk to ordinary people about everyday issues impacted by Internet politics. And I’ll use it to fight real problems: racism, the income gap, war, ecological devastation.
"Finally, Ghost of Internet Future, I will always insist that the Internet is more than a means of transmitting data—it is a place for building community."
And the day was still just dawning.