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Acknowledgements
The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, The National Post, The Economist, WIRED, the Montreal Gazette and the Globe and Mail - all these comprised the solid core of my approach to all affairs current - my daily exposure to and discussion of them often a direct, unwavering function of living with a certified and admitted news junkie. I can't recommend that too highly.
As for the scholarly monograph - an often degraded venue which, all reports to the contrary, seems to be clipping along just fine - two authors in particular bear mention : the neo-realist analysis of Robert D. Kaplan, long time international affairs correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, and the environmental examinations of Thomas Homer-Dixon of the University of Toronto Centre for Peace Studies. Both these persuasive writers and their work on current geo-political and social conditions at the planet's economic periphery (areas like the Islamic states of Asia which receive little or no coverage even by the global news outlets1) have been vital to forming some of the arguments to follow. In addition, non-governmental organisations such as UNESCO, Freedom House, the European Parliament and the OECD all undertake annual surveys of information access and living conditions around the globe, studies which have also been vital in trying to see beyond the immediate landscape. International activists such as John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation & Phil Zimmerman, inventor of PGP encryption freeware, or domestic critics like Naomi Klein & Heather Menzies (Professor of Communication Studies at Carleton University) as well as recent authors and commentators such as Neal Stephenson and Bruce Sterling have all been hugely influential in broadening my appreciation of the tilting scales of technological advantage. And finally, as for the historical outline, this was filled piece by piece through reading the late Harold Innis and Arthur C. Clarke, as well as Alberto Manguel and dozens of other historians, geographers, philosophers and scientists who have felt drawn to the story of early communications and how these technologies have shaped our world. Finally, the title itself, is borrowed from a piece by English conceptual artist Victor Burgin (viewable at http://www.envy.nu/honeypie/).
As for personal thanks : all those who put up with my elaboration for over a year in preparation : Laura, polymath wonder par excellence at SUNY Buffalo; Rob, erudite programmer-philosopher, and Becky, creative but clinical e-community architect, both in Ottawa; Josh, deeply-sceptical but comedic English teacher in Hong Kong; Doug, jet-setting mining engineer in Halifax; Eric, globe-trotting activist geologist at UBC, and Susanna, linguistics extrordinare, both in Vancouver; Ryan, hyper-practical IT logistics manager, Troy, pure aesthete genius and Brigid, brill Public Policy MA; all in Toronto - all these people have been the ones to spot technological potentials and pitfalls, as each works inticately with some facet of information, be it technical, artistic, strategic or philosophical, every single day.
They're all amazing, always have been, always will be.
Note 1 : The summer of 2000 will arguably stand as one of the most horrifying examples of cascading print media coverage in Canadian history as, for three consecutive months, half the text of each of Canada's daily national papers was devoted quite entirely to some combination of a) the selection of Stockwell Day as the leader of the up-start, Western-based neo-conservative protest party, the Canadian Alliance, b) the awe-inspiring anticipation surrounding the release of the newest instalment in the popular children's reading series Harry Potter, or c) the "Survivor" television series. The former are at least understandable, as political and publishing phenomena. As for the latter, I'll take the long-range historical perspective and leave this mercifully unelaborated upon.
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