So what's new

Of course, any technological advance opens up new avenues. So what is different about computers? We suggest several ways in which computers are distinctively different from most technological advances.

First, their use is pervasive. A new kind of life jacket is important for sailors and canoeists, but it is not going to affect the lives of many of us directly. In contrast, computers reach every corner of our lives. Cash machines, anti-lock brakes, microwave ovens, toasters, watches, mobile phones, video recorders, direct-line insurance, supermarket checkouts, personal letter-writing . . . the list goes on.

Second, their impact is profound. There comes a point when technology makes a qualitative change to the way we live, rather than just a quantitative one. In particular, computers affect our relationships with each other. Electronic mail, ubiquitous mobile phones, video conferencing, Internet chat rooms, personal web sites, bulletin boards each give us a new way of relating to each other. These new forms of communication profoundly affect our social fabric. Geographically dispersed special interest groups can form, which would otherwise be impossible. Email is wonderful because it makes it possible to contact someone quickly but without requiring them to be available at the precise moment of the call . . . and terrible too because it is so easy to send 'spam' mail to hundreds of thousands of unwilling recipients.

Computers affect how we think of ourselves, and what we think of as real. Computers have always been engaging, even addictive, to some. As they become more sophisticated, that appeal becomes more widespread. A great deal of effort goes into creating 'virtual reality' worlds, sometimes for entertainment, sometimes for more prosaic purposes (such as letting an architect 'walk through' an unbuilt building). The outcome is to blur the boundary between us and the machine.

All of this raises interesting philosophical questions, but our interest here is more pragmatic: how do computers affect us, as individuals, and in our relationships with others, and in our relationship with God?

Computers are unusual in having both these qualities. Hamburgers, for example, are pervasive, but do not have a profound impact. Artificial hip replacement has a profound impact on the lives of those it affects directly, but is not pervasive. Computers are both. Not only that, but the best, or worst, is yet to come. So far the impact of computers has been more profound than pervasive. We do not yet have essentially free communication of really large quantities of information over very large distances. There is not yet a satellite dish in every Indian village. Truly immersive virtual reality systems are still expensive and cartoon-like. Information about us as individuals is still distributed among a thousand incompatible databases. But these things will change, and in ways that no one can accurately predict.

Beyond this, computers have a third extraordinary, even unique, characteristic: they transcend familiar physical limits. Much of the world we are used to is governed, in one way or another, by physical limits. Computers and digital communication networks do away with many such limits; in particular, they make it possible to copy, manipulate and transmit digital information essentially for nothing. This ability has complex and unpredictable consequences. For example:

• Digitized information can be duplicated cheaply with no loss of quality, whether it is a database, a computer program, a video, the design of an aeroplane, or the digital representation of a book or a work of art. All these things could be copied before, but there always used to be some significant physical cost associated with it, even if it was only standing in front of the photocopier for a few hours. Furthermore, the copy was usually less perfect than the original.
• Digitized information can be encrypted cheaply and perfectly. This makes it possible for people to have digital conversations that are almost impossible to tap, with benefits for privacy, and costs for law enforcement.
• Digitized information can be transmitted from one place to another cheaply, and with no degradation. This 'death of distance' makes new relationships and communities possible that would otherwise be impractical. It also makes possible hitherto physically unattainable concentrations of power, and the much-discussed globalization of markets and trade. The East India Company was an international company but, when communication with head office took two months, local discretion was unavoidable. Now, one head office, even one person, can take decisions that have immediate, global effects.

So far we have spoken simply of 'computers', which might be interpreted narrowly as meaning simply the raw 'hardware' (electronics) and 'software' (programs) of computer systems. But the whole point of this book is that the unique characteristics of computers that we have sketched above have given birth to something qualitatively new.

'Information technology' and 'the Internet' get closer to the 'something' that we have in mind, but they are still technologically oriented terms. The word we have chosen to focus on instead is 'cyberspace'. We will have more to say about what we mean by cyberspace in Chapter 2.