Unseen Consequences of New Technologies

In Chapter 8, From ARPAnet to the Internet, Mark Giese discusses the founding of ARPAnet, the origin of today's internet. He traces it to the Defense Department's way of creating a manner in which to communicate if all other forms fail during nuclear war. ARPAnet, it was called, was at its foundation, antithetical to the usual way the military worked. They wanted a non-centralized and interconnnected system, much different from the normal hierarchy of the military. But the most interesting point of Giese's chapter is the example it makes of being unaware of the consequences or other uses for a new technology. Marshall McLuhan, a famed member of the Media Ecology community, always warned of the effects of new technologies. No one can ever fully understand how something new will change the world we live in and ARPAnet is no exception. The military eventually lost the battle with computer researchers and the internet slowly became a social network. Little did the military know that there system originally meant for back up communications in the case of an attack would become public and be used world-wide.