The Amazing Lewis Mumford In The Context of Technology: Internet Governance

A few days ago, someone wrote to me about a quotation by Lewis Mumford, and because of the era I grew up in I always associate poor Lewis with the Amazing Mumford - picturing him jumping out of nowhere and waving a wand, projecting his voice as he says, "A la peanut butter sandwiches!". Of course, strange things always happened, but they were generally amusing. Maybe he's still on Sesame Street, I don't know.

It's all sort of unfair for Lewis Mumford, because he wrote a lot of great stuff that still applies. So while I was working on the quotations, I was considering some of Mumford's quotes. His books came out around when I was born, really, but fortunately I ruffled through hand me down copies years ago. I call him the Amazing Mumford in another way - a lot of what he wrote still applies. In fact, it's amazing to consider what it applies to. So as I was neck deep in scripts and the entrails of MySQL, half participating in a conversation regarding Internet Governance. So for the first stop: The internet.

Internet Governance

Consider what the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG)¹ came up with in 2005 as a definition:

Internet governance is the development and application by Governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.

The first Mumford quote that came to mind is this:

The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion.

It's disturbingly true. I'll assume you agree - so let's reshape the statement of Working Group on Internet Governance|WGIG] in that context:

Internet governance is the development and application by citizens of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.

That's a hell of a lot simpler than this 'multistakeholder synergistic approach' crap that I keep seeing scribbled by the Scribes From Hell in their wordprocessors. It's odd how the wording is different, though, isn't it? It sort of tells you what sort of people wrote the document, if you pay attention to how it could have been written and how it actually was written. People with low reading comprehensions may not notice, but that would have to be a pretty low reading comprehension level to miss that. I'm glad my name isn't on that document.

Now, let's mix up something here for internet governance. Let's start with this Mumford quote:

The chief function of the city is to convert power into form, energy into culture, dead matter into the living symbols of art, biological reproduction into social creativity.

Let's toss in that one of the major tools of globalization is the internet. In fact, we could even go as far to say that the internet is a city that is intangible. So, let's replace 'city' with 'internet':

The chief function of the internet is to convert power into form, energy into culture, dead matter into the living symbols of art, biological reproduction into social creativity.

Almost there. We're not into biological reproduction on the internet (certainly not for lack of trying), and we're not dealing with dead matter, and so on. So pull out your magic wand and project your voice.

The chief function of the internet is to convert information into digital form, energy into culture, old data into the digital symbols of art, digital reproduction into social creativity.

Uhoh. So let's take the derivative above and drop this in:

Internet governance is the development and application by citizens of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet, where the chief function of the internet is to convert information into digital form, energy into culture, old data into the digital symbols of art, digital reproduction into social creativity.

Oops. Now, maybe you don't agree with what that says, but it demonstrates exactly what is missing from the WGIG definition: A Human Context. The internet isn't about some arbitrary life forms getting together in chat rooms playing the teenage girl to catch the pedophile. It's a little bit larger than [t:pornography] - yes, really - and it certainly isn't about finding new and improved ways to get more taxes out of human beings. Governance and 'screwing people' are supposed to be two separate things, or we've just reinvented fiefdoms. Alana, Atouk sort of stuff, complete with trees filled with opiates. That's a movie reference. A classic.

Of course, I think we're still there. So I'll replace city and the context in another Mumford quote:

Forget the damned computers and related technology and build the internet for lovers and friends.

OK, kids, there's no 'pornography' in that one, but we will all try to understand if puberty is taking extra long. But the point here is that the internet is supposed to be about connecting people, and staring into the pit of 'governance', an oft misunderstood word, is leading to results which prop up present systems instead of working toward human progress. If you're human, that includes you. If not, I'm very sorry about the state of the planet and I must assure you that renovations are continuing at the speed of bureaucrats using their computers as typewriters. Can 50,000 bureaucrats write Shakespeare given infinite time? That's really the issue, isn't it?

Frankly, we have traditionalists working on 'Internet Governance' based on the documents that have come out so far. Which leads to the last Mumford quote in this -

Traditionalists are pessimists about the future and optimists about the past.

If we expect change, shouldn't we have more to look forward to in the future than reinventing the wheel with digital technology? I would hope so.

¹ I was a nominee, but in retrospect I am quite happy I am not involved for reasons alluded to above.