Future Wireless Introduction • Dr. R.Barbrook \

by Dr. Richard Barbrook

“It is possible to be enthusiastic about contextualised use of new technologies while being critical of technological progress ideology that still so thoroughly surrounds even critical techno-cultures”.
Tapio Mäkelä

Here we go again. Back in the mid-1990s, the Web, virtual reality and the information superhighway were going to change everything. According to the prophets of the Californian ideology, if you weren’t wired, you were tired. A decade later, Wi-fi, locative media and mobile VOIP are now the iconic technologies. Artists, activists and entrepreneurs are getting more and more excited by the wonders of mobile computing. Wired has become tired and wireless is the new future. But, before we become too enthusiastic, shouldn’t we pause for a moment of reflection? The arrival of the Net inspired an orgy of McLuhanist hype, which – in the aftermath of the dotcom bubble – now appears absurd. If we don’t want to repeat the same mistake, we will have to do some intelligent thinking about the possibilities and pitfalls of mobile computing. As their contribution to this process, Cybersalon and Open Spectrum UK decided to organise the Future Wireless conference. On 4th October 2005, leading experts and practitioners came together at London’s Science Museum to discuss the locative shape of mobile things to come. This section offers a selection of their arguments. The contributors don’t claim to have all of the answers. What they’re offering is a starting point for the debate over the future of wireless.

If about nothing else, the authors are agreed on one thing: new technologies are transforming telecommunications. For over a century, preventing interference between different signals has provided the ideal excuse for limiting access to the airwaves. As Robert Horvitz points out, the rapid spread of Wi-fi proves that this top-down regulatory paradigm will soon be obsolete. Using software, large numbers of people can now share the same frequency. Peter Cochrane argues that big government and big business are no longer able to enforce their monopoly over the airwaves. Imitating the Net, the new telecommunication systems are being built bottom-up around open standards and open spectrum. When there is an abundance of frequencies, everyone can be a broadcaster.

Burnt by the dotcom bubble, it is tempting to be cynical about these hi-tech prophecies. Are the marvels of Wi-fi just another way of persuading us to upgrade our laptops? More importantly, Francis McKee warns that mobile computing could also threaten our civil liberties. Like CCTV cameras, ATM records and phone logs, this technological innovation enables the authorities to track and monitor our lives. Even inanimate objects can now be kept under surveillance with RFID tags. For Marc Tuters, a premonition of this dystopian future can be found in the post-modernist philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. Our fascination with technological liberation could be leading us towards the triumph of political authoritarianism. With Bush and Blair claiming that their ‘War on Terror’ justifies the abuse of human rights, we must make sure that the advantages of wireless communications aren’t outweighed by its disadvantages.

Ironically, technological pessimism is derived from the same assumptions as technological optimism. In his writings, Marshall McLuhan found no difficulties in advocating both positions at the same time! But, as Giles Lane emphasises, a technological determinist analysis has to assume that the social and cultural implications of mobile computing are predetermined. He asks what if we take a different approach: Wi-fi as a tool with many different uses. The contributors to this section argue that we can – and must – shape his new technology in our own interests. Above all, experts and practitioners have to intervene in the policy debate over telecommunications regulation. Imitating its Tory predecessors, the Blair government wants to impose neo-liberal panaceas upon this sector: auctioning frequencies and proprietary standards. Rejecting these anachronistic 1980s-style policies, John Wilson advocates the up-to-date twenty-first century solutions: open spectrum and open standards. Like markets and factories, networks provide a structure for large number of people to work together. Echoing Adam Smith, he believes that the spectrum has now become the "Invisible Wealth of Nations".

As well as encouraging a more advanced form of economics, wireless communications also promises to improve our political system. Robert Horvitz argues that access to the airwaves should be treated just like free speech: a basic right of all citizens. Both Sophia Drakopoulou and John Wilson believe that mobile computing will soon create a hi-tech – and universal - form of Athenian democracy. Using their phones, people could text their opinions to modern Hermes Columns: giant screens in public places. When everyone has Wi-fi, all citizens will be able to participate in the electronic agora. As their contribution to the struggle for democracy, artists are turning the digital Panopticon against its masters. The MILK project and Taxi_onomy have cleverly used logging, tracking and surveillance to make clear the economic and social connections between people that are usually hidden by money and markets. In a society founded upon commodity fetishism, defetishising the commodity is a subversive act. This political-aesthetic technique also challenges one of the favourite tropes of the Californian ideology: leaving the meatspace to live in cyberspace. As Marc Tuters reminds us, Manuel Castells analysed the Net as a ‘space of flows’ that existed outside the physical world. In contrast, locative media creates a ‘space of place’ that connects people with their geographical surroundings. Hyper-reality is no longer the substitute for reality. Instead, mobile computing is augmenting and improving reality.

What can we learn from the contributors to the Future Wireless section? In the mid-2000s, scepticism about McLuhanist techno-optimism has to be combined with disdain for Deleuzian techno-pessimism. If we don’t want to be trapped by these imaginary futures, we must invent our own – and better – futures. Above all, we must have confidence in our own abilities to shape the development of mobile computing. Christian Benesch talks about how we can only avoid being caught in a net by becoming part of the network. Future Wireless has brought together people from very different backgrounds and political positions. By discussing their hopes and fears about mobile computing, they discovered that they had much in common. As Dooeun Choi says, we can all work towards the same emancipatory goal: human-centred communications. Once you’ve read the Future Wireless section, it will then be your turn to make a contribution to building our locative, networked and mobile future.