I wonder if it’s time for a moratorium (or at least a bit of skepticism) on describing our time as “the Information Age.” First, it seems unlikely to me that in the future we will think of the year 2004 as part of the Information Age. The Stone Age was marked by the introduction and use of stone tools; the Bronze Age was marked by the introduction and use of bronze tools. But it’s not like suddenly in the late 20th and early 21st century people suddenly started using information. And if we continue to rely more and more on information over the next few centuries, today’s uses of information will seem so primitive that few will think to describe it as part of the Information Age. The Automobile Age, perhaps, but probably not the Information Age. And what ever happened to the Space Age? I remember as a kid hearing a lot about how mankind had entered the Space Age. Today that looks like a gimmick, a rather dated self-reflection. I wouldn’t be surprised if we feel a bit the same about “the Information Age” twenty years from now.
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