Politics

数字时代之梦

Sep 9, 2013 Peter Singer

普林斯顿—五十年前，马丁·路德·金提出了一个美国梦，有一天，美国所有公民，不论黑人白人，都能得到平等。如今，Facebook创始人马克·扎克伯格也有一个梦：他想向世界五十亿不能上网的人提供互联网接入。

扎克伯格的愿景听起来像是让Facebook拥有更多用户的自利举动。但当今世界面临着越来越大的技术差异，这一差异对平等、自由和追求幸福的权利所形成的影响不亚于金所针对的种族差异。

放眼全球，二十多亿人生活在数字时代。他们可以接入广袤无垠的信息世界，以极低甚至零成本与朋友和家人通信，与其他他们需要合作的人联系。其他五十亿人仍生活在我们这一代人生长其中的纸时代。

To continue reading, register now.

Subscribe now for unlimited access to everything PS has to offer.

As a registered user, you can enjoy more PS content every month – for free.

Already have an account? Log in

Subscribe to PS Digital

Access every new PS commentary, our entire On Point suite of subscriber-exclusive content – including Longer Reads, Insider Interviews, Big Picture/Big Question, and Say More – and the full PS archive.

Subscribe Now

Peter Singer

Writing for PS since 2001
225 Commentaries

Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, is Founder of the nonprofit organization The Life You Can Save. His books include Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason), Rethinking Life and Death, The Point of View of the Universe, co-authored with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, The Most Good You Can Do, Famine, Affluence, and Morality, One World Now, Ethics in the Real World, Why Vegan?, and Utilitarianism: A Very Short Introduction, also with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek. In April 2021, W.W. Norton published his new edition of Apuleius’s The Golden Ass. In 2013, he was named the world's third "most influential contemporary thinker" by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute.

new comment has been posted. new comments have been posted.

0 Comments on this paragraph, 5 Comments on this article

Jose araujo Jan 31, 2014

Hunger and ignorance are two very effective ways of controlling the masses, son until we solve the democratic/government problems in this countries we are not going to solve any major issues.

First step would be to stop dealing with this kind of governments and stop the support for tyranic governments and penalize corruption heavily.

Until the developed world stops making money from human exploitation, this issues are not going away because ignorance and hunger are the pillars that support tyranic governments.
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
Gopalakrishnan Tanjavur Ramaswami Dec 30, 2013

While the risk of universal Internet access is substantive, the consequence of not having access might be higher. While we need to support initiatives that push for greater access, we will have to put in place mechanisms that minimise the the adverse outcomes. I think we are well into rethinking our relation to Internet in the context of government and market surveillance, we seem to have left the policy questions regarding universal access to the market. There is a wide academic literature on the topic of 'digital divide' that has placed this articles concern at the centre of policy debate with little effect.It seem to me that the markets have greater stake in continuing digital disparities, than do the government, which seem to be primarily concerned about regulations and political controls.
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
Kanchhedia Chamaar Sep 10, 2013

Even if all of the five billion people who do not currently have access to internet did gain access due to Zuckerberg's not entirely disinterested largesse, a large number of them would still face what might be called linguistic barriers because most of the content on the internet is in what might be called metropolitan languages. There are hundreds of languages in Papua New Guinea and India, to mention two countries with vast linguistic diversity, that do not even have a script of their own.
The ruling elite in India ruthlessly and methodically disenfranchises the vast majority of Indians by keeping them confined to what Rorty would call the prison-house of Indian vernaculars.
The poor in India would remain disenfranchised and excluded from participating in what the English media in India calls national discourse even if they had access not just to the "free" internet but also to the "subscription-only" domains on the internet including access to the entire output of all research on Indian polity, Indian economy, Indian history, Indian sociology, Indian media and Indian culture. And the reason is that all research on every topic that has to do with India as a nation is conceived and carried out in English. Going beyond English might take one to other languages associated with economic power, but not to Indian vernaculars. There are more books on Indian history in the US Library of Congress that were originally written in any one of Russian, Japanese, or Korean, than those originally written in all Indian vernacular put together. Moreover, since Western categories are used to generate the information on the internet, translating it into Indian vernaculars without using meaningless neologisms is impossible.
- Bhanu Siva Prasad D Sep 12, 2013
  
  This idea will be very useful for every one, already there many sites which contains the details and news in local languages for example Google is available is many languages that are present in India, so In my opinion language will not be a barrier but the real barrier will be the political pressures to keep people unaware of the of these things so that they can easily persuade people and convince them to vote without merit.
  For change to happen there should be a starting point hope this can become that point.
  A new reply to this comment has been posted.
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
Steve Barney Sep 9, 2013

I guess that something like a cell phone or tablet with permanent free 3G internet access and a solar photovoltaic charger would do the trick.
A new reply to this comment has been posted.