The problem with a computer
network, of course, is that it's hard to know where
the weak link is: your computer, your modem, your access provider,
the phone
lines, the website server _ it could be any of them.
Negroponte, however, thinks
the main bottleneck for us in Thailand, and indeed
for the entire Internet, is the international links connecting country
to country.
``The worst thing is intercountry
service,' said Negroponte.
``For instance, here in
Thailand you've only got two million bits per second going out
of the country.'
Unfortunately, unless you're
rich enough to invest in your own leased line,
there's probably not much you can do about it, apart from lobbying
government
officials to expand the bandwidth connecting Thailand to the rest of
the world.
The point is, however, that
Negroponte definitely seems to know what he's
talking. He had better. After all, he is considered the arch-guru of
the digital
revolution, wherein transferring information is stored in discrete,
standardized
parcels, making it much easier to share.
If you've never heard of
Negroponte, shame on you. The founder and director of
the Media Lab at MIT, he may be even better known as a popular columnist
for
Wired magazine and the author of Being Digital, a book that has now
been
translated into more than 30 languages.
Negroponte's mission is to
explore and explain how the digital revolution can
change the world _ a world where the Internet is only a small part
of major
changes to come, a world made up of bits of information rather than
atoms of
matter.
Negroponte certainly has
his fair share of nifty ideas. In Bangkok recently to
speak to executives as part of the Dow Jones Asia Dialogues programme,
he was
touting the notion of ``wearable computers'. You know, put a computer
in your
shoe to run a display-device-cum-mobile-telephone on your wrist.
Sounds neat. But don't take
it to the bank just yet. Predicting specific
inventions may not be Negroponte's greatest talent. He admits that
he was as
surprised as everyone else by how swiftly the Internet has taken off.
Negroponte is best at thinking
big: ``I want to do things on a large scale in
order to have impact,' he explained to Wired.
Nor does he limit his thinking
to the role of machines, because the digital
revolution will not be the only one to shape our future: ``Being digital
is
trivial in comparison to the information capacities in biology,' he
acknowledges.
Negroponte's main expertise
is in thinking about ``the machine-human
interface'. And it's a talent that he's parlayed into a globe-trotting,
dinner-speaking, executive-advising lifestyle that allows him to travel
300,000 miles a year _ but of course always remain in touch through
his e-mail
address: nicholas@media.mit.edu.
While the rest of us dream
of avoiding the Bangkok traffic by tele-commuting to
our office a few kilometres away, Negroponte has decided that he doesn't
need an office at all to run an institute that spends $25 million a
year of mostly
corporate money. He'd rather run it from Greece.
Which brings up an interesting
point. Some have touted digital communications
as a promising tool to cut down on the expense of travelling, but it
could just
as easily allow people to travel more _ if that's what they want.
Negroponte travels in style.
As you might guess, he doesn't go anywhere without
his two Powerbook laptop computers and a 10-pack of batteries. ``You
can take
away anything from me _ TV, refrigerator, automobile _ but not my online
connection,' he says. ``I have spent my whole life online. I depend
on it
enormously.'
He's not totally machine-driven,
however. Negroponte does have one soft spot
for the world of atoms. The one paper thing he has in his life is an
academic
planner, a monthly calendar in which he actually writes appointments
down by
hand using an old-fashioned pen. Now you know.
Negroponte considers himself
to be a ``Type A' character _ a neurotic, driven
perfectionist who is due to keel over from a heart attack any day now.
Well,
maybe so. But he doesn't come across that way.
For instance, when he gets
flamed _ that is, viciously attacked by e-mail _ he
simply sends back a polite reply thanking them for their views. It's
a smart
move. Inevitably, the flamer gushes back with apologies.
And for a guy who's so totally
globalized, Negroponte seems quite amiable and
soft-spoken. He patiently answers questions that have no doubt been
asked a
zillion times before.
Negroponte has views on just
about everything, and soundbites to match: the Net
is growing organically; the state will become both more local and more
global;
the financial community is already a global community with absolutely
no sense
of nationalism.
So what does he have to say
about developing countries? They will become big
users of the Internet, he told The Nation, as it will give them access
to
libraries and markets they don't have at home.
``Developing countries will
use it more vigorously than some parts of Europe,
where people are fat and happy,' he added.
Digital culture tends to
be decentralized. Highly centralized, top-down
societies like France and Germany are slow to take up the digital revolution,
according to Negroponte. It should do well, however, in a country like
Italy.
``If you think about it,
being digital is Italian,' Negroponte said in a Wired
interview. ``It's underground, provocative, interactive. It has humour,
discourse and debate.'
Negroponte's prediction should
bode well for Thailand, sometimes called ``the
Italy of Asia' for its legendary joie de vivre and notorious political
instability.
``It is very different in
France and Germany, where the pomp and ceremony don't
go away at dinner,' he continues. ``Those countries don't have an underground.
They aren't built out of small companies and entrepreneurial energy.
``Right now, being digital
is an American phenomonen, and I think different
cultures resonate with it in different ways.'
Before it can resonate, however,
it first must become accessible. That requires
infrastructure.
``The use of the Internet
is literally proportional to the telecoms system,' he
adds, ``and I'm not just picking on developing countries. The same
is true for
developed countries.' He could well pick on Thailand, however, where
development
of telecommunications infrastructure has been stunted by outdated laws,
short-sighted agencies, and monopoly-minded companies.
Negroponte adds that the
cheap, new network computer being touted by Oracle
boss Larry Ellison would therefore be inappropriate for developing
countries
because it will put even more strain on an already overburdend telecoms
system.
The price of computers is
also crucial, says Negroponte. Access to the Internet
is often kept artificially expensive, and there is a strong need for
a computer
that costs only $200 to buy. Advances in technology have led to ever
more
powerful PCs, but their price remains fixed above $2,000.
On another hot issue, censorship,
Negroponte is quite firm: ``You can't censor
the Internet. For every lock you make, you can get a key. As they say,
locks are
for honest people.'
He does agree there could
be a dark side to the Internet. In particular, it
could lead to a loss of security, and of privacy. But overall, he says,
``I'm an
optimist'.
Asked about the issue of
language and cultural homogenization, for instance,
Negroponte explains, ``I get irked by suggestions that the Internet
is leading
to the infiltration of English. What I call the `air traffic control
part' will
be in English, but the content is already multilingual.
``The Internet is dominated
not by English, but by ASCII [the Latin-alphabet
computer font]. Many people are working on international standards
for other
fonts.
``When it comes to the Internet,
the generational divide is bigger than the
East-West or North-South divide. And there's an educational divide,
more than a
split between rich and poor.
``We should focus on improving
primary education. Computers can accomodate all
sorts of people, including those who are not well served by present
educational
systems. So let's start with the kids. Let's put our energy there.'
Anyone who has hung out with
youngsters who have grown up ``being digital' will
realize that, well, they're different from the rest of us. Just how
is hard to say, however.
``I don't have any soundbites
on this, but kids today think more
algorhythmically than we do. They are more interested in bugs [mistakes
in
computer programmes]. To them, debugging is fun. We consider bugs to
be
failures. They learn from them.
``They are also more geographically
couth, more spatially enhanced. The right
side of their brain _ the wholistic, creative side _ is exercised.
Parents used
to send kids abroad to become worldly. Now they can get a certain part
of that
at home on their computer.
``I don't subscribe to the
notion that the Internet is having an anti-social
effect. Kids who spend time on it come away with better social skills.
They are more interested, and more interesting.
``If a kid sits at home and
reads a book or plays a piano for hours, it's
considered a `good thing'. So why isn't it good for them to be on the
Internet?
Kids get passionate about it. We should find ways to make them just
as
passionate about other things.'
Negroponte can get pretty
passionate about it, too. But you don't have to take
my word for it. Just send him some e-mail....
Have any suggestions? Complaints? Picks? Pans? Utterly random thoughts
you'd like to share? Please send e-mail to jfahn@nation.nationgroup.com