Much has changed in the consumer computer world in the 3 years since I last bought a computer. We recently purchased an HP Pavillion laptop computer. It comes with MS Vista and a bunch of other applications already installed. No program discs or manuals at all. And, like an infant, it pops out gasping for life sustaining air. Only in this case, it gasps for connection to the internet. 

What moves me to write this post is my naive refresher on the extent to which we are becoming enveloped and intertwined by the internet. Increasingly, the internet is becoming the central nervous system of our civilization.

While standing in front of a display at Circuit City I called the HP customer service number to inquire about the warranty on their Pavillion. I eventually spoke with a fast talking character who flat out said that I should not buy from Circuit City, one of their own distributors (!), and that I should have a custom laptop assembled by HP.  After 10 minutes of irritating hard sell, we eventually hung up on him.

This isn’t just about commerce. This is about anthropology. A commercial tool is absolutely altering how we do nearly everything and how we expend scarce resources.  It is a tool that uses features you cannot own- you can only agree to the terms of a license. This tool is held together by the sinew of invisible electronic code. This tool is both pleasurable and fearsome. It can be swung by governments, accountants, and 9 year old Hindu children.

To even inquire about these computer tools, we are forced to use computerized telecommunications and speak to computerized devices that filter and channel us into packing house chutes like pigs to slaughter. This sorting process can identify willing consumers, plump with credit, and prepare them for flensing.

We have become giddy and willing participants in a change that is almost biological in its transformation of our social structure. The very first thing that a MS program wants to do is to connect with the Mother Ship at Microsoft. Increasingly, our DSL connected computers are becoming assimilated into the control of the collective being.  It would be an exaggeration to say that it resembles the Borg of Star Trek. But the idea of assimilation of information flow into a master network is beginning to take shape. A master network suggests master control.

Consumers have control of the situation, you might say. At some level, yes. But there are disturbing trends that need to be recognized.  The playing field of global commerce is neither egalitarian, democratic, or laissez faire. While there may be harmonized regulations that cut across national borders to slow down the more obvious scams, the nature of the players is changing.  Increasingly,  nationalized organizations are participating in the market place in a big way.  In the petroleum market for instance, NOC’s control approximately 75 % of the worlds petroleum reserves. That means that soverign nations can modulate scarcity directly.

Autocratic and paranoid governments do what they have always have done. They restrict access and reduce transparency. When such governments have control of commodity production (i.e., Gazprom), their resilience in the market is magnified by the fact that overhead can be subsidized and scarcity can be driven by politics.  Nationalized commodity suppliers do not suffer the full forces of the market place because they can be floated by the government.  The cleansing effect of the market place on inefficient operation is ineffective.

The openness of the internet can only go one direction. It will increasingly be subject to contrivance and control by organizations that seek facile extraction of dollars from you. Today, buying a computer means giving increasing consent to automated integration into the net.  We willingly comply because we are first and foremost primates who are dazzled by flashing lights, pretty colors, and a new axe to swing around.