Peeking into the rock

I coined the phrase "information socialism" something like 25 years ago, because it seemed clear that information networks could transform social relations. I then found that I would have had to write a book to be able to discuss the idea with anyone! Everyone misunderstood it--the kneejerk reactions from the right didn't surprise me, but I found there was also no way to discuss it with anyone from the left, who were either convinced that socialism had to be about labor in industrial environments or in repastoralizing the world. Even the 60s new left philosophical sort of people who looked like they would grab the idea & run with it were busy in philsophical cloud-cuckoo land. And they were all very upset by the idea--social transformation is scary, even to me, and people hold tightly to their beliefs.

So there it sat and finally, it seems, the world is beginning to catch up. Weird.