On the cover of every issue of Wired magazine appears the self-referential exhortation "Get Wired!" translated into a different language each month.
But do we have a choice? The wiring of the world proceeds apace, and large interests gather. The hype is intense and fun to watch, but frustrating to think about. Part of the frustration is the feeling of unstoppable momentum, compounded of both the energy of a new liberation and the systematic imperatives of capital and profit.
If we question this momentum will we be left behind, vainly urging people to read the old books and to avoid the new tools? Will we find ourselves counseling resistance by fleeing the new cities, with as little effect on the juggernaut as had earlier self-exiles?
But if we go along with the momentum will we be swept up into dystopia?