Internet Dreams: Archetypes, Myths, and Metaphors Lee Ridgway

Along with their phenomenal growth, the Internet  and World Wide Web 
have generated an ever-growing body of adjunct literature. From 
"dummies" guides to visions of networked utopias, this literature 
tries to make sense of the technical, economic, social, and 
philosophical aspects of the Internet. Internet Dreams, published last 
fall by The MIT Press, is Mark Stefik's contribution to envisioning the 
future. 

Stefik is a principal scientist at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 
where his research has ranged from designing programming languages, to 
expert systems, to computer support for cooperative work. He 
characterizes his work as having the theme of using technology to 
enhance creativity, collaboration, and human expression.
 
Finding Better Metaphors
Stefik's premise in Internet Dreams is that the best way to think about 
the future of the Internet is to come up with fresh metaphors:

"The metaphors we use constantly in our everyday language profoundly 
influence what we do, because they shape our understanding.When we 
change the metaphors, therefore, we change how we think about things. 
Because metaphors can guide our imagination about a new invention, they 
influence what it can be even before it exists."

Stefik believes that the place to look for these metaphors is in Jungian 
archetypes and in myths of human behavior. He sees the popular 
metaphor of likening the Internet to an information superhighway as 
limiting and misleading, and his Introduction offers a good analysis of 
why. He also sees that no single metaphor could cover the rich range 
of possibilities of the emerging information infrastructure.

I-way Guides 
While recognizing its limitations, Stefik takes the information 
superhighway as his starting point and shortens it to the term I-way. He 
then explores four metaphors and corresponding archetypes as guides to 
thinking about how the Internet may evolve. 

* The digital library, with the I-way as publishing and community 
memory, emphasizes the publication and storage of knowledge for 
preservation and access by society. The archetypal image is that of the 
keeper of knowledge, as exemplified by the wise old one, the storyteller 
in oral traditions, the museum curator, the scholar, and the librarian.

* In the electronic mail metaphor, the I-way works as a communications 
medium. Personal messages are exchanged between individuals and public 
messages sent to groups and communities. The archetype here is the 
communicator or messenger. 

* The electronic marketplace, where goods and services are sold, is a 
place of action and commerce. The archetypes range from the older and 
more traditional - warrior, farmer, hunter, gatherer - to the modern 
- merchant, salesperson, business executive, bargain hunter. As 
electronic marketplaces develop, new metaphors will be needed to guide 
thinking about digital commerce, digital money, and digital property.

* The I-way is a gateway to experience through digital worlds, such as 
social settings on the network, groupware, virtual reality, augmented 
reality, telepresence, and ubiquitous computing. These worlds are 
places for exploration and escape from the routine. The archetype is 
that of the adventurer, who seeks new experiences to fire the 
imagination. This metaphor reflects the human need for renewal; it also 
raises issues about social interaction and the nature of reality.
 
Stefik starts each of his four main sections with his own commentary. 
He then offers articles and excerpts from the writings of others whose 
ideas and work have significantly influenced the development of 
information technology. Stefik surrounds each article with his own 
Connections (introductory context) and Reflections.
 
Most of the articles address the Internet and the World Wide Web 
directly, while a few from earlier "eras" of computing were chosen for 
their visions of a technological future that has come to be. A vivid 
example of the latter leads off the section on digital library 
metaphors. It is an excerpt from Vannevar Bush's "As We May Think," an 
article appearing in the July 1945 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. What 
Bush imagined, although with an entirely different technological basis, 
came into being 30 years later with personal computers and hypertext. 
(The biographical note on Bush makes no mention of his MIT connection.)

What Works, What Doesn't
Of the four metaphors explored by Stefik, digital libraries and the 
electronic marketplace seem the strongest, probably because their 
extension into electronic realms grows from long traditions in human 
experience. They offer the possibility of fairly clear and attainable 
developments, with plenty of room for further "dreaming." They also seem 
to be the areas that generate positive feelings about technology and its 
effects on the individual and society.

Less strong are Stefik's metaphors of electronic mail and digital 
worlds. Although important as part of the overall discussion, electronic 
mail may be fulfilling its potential to such a degree that it no longer 
requires much analysis - in other words, it is already a commonplace 
utility. Digital worlds, on the other hand, may still present too many 
unknowns in their effects on behavior to derive metaphors that can carry 
universal meaning.

In his Epilogue, Stefik states that his goal "has been to spark our 
imaginations and to make room for the voices of many creative and 
knowledgeable people." In this he is mostly successful, having culled a 
variety of perspectives that can serve as starting points for further 
discussion. His book can also help us to move beyond thinking of the 
Internet as just technology or an on-ramp to information, freeing us to 
dream about what it might become.