![]() ![]() And as this code changes, the character of cyberspace will change as well. In a host of ways that one cannot begin to see unless one begins to understand the nature of this code, the code of cyberspace regulates. It affects who sees what, or what is monitored. ![]() It determines whether access to information is general or whether information is zoned. It determines how easy it is to protect privacy, or how easy it is to censor speech. ![]() This code, or architecture, sets the terms on which life in cyberspace is experienced. ![]() This regulator is code-the software and hardware that make cyberspace as it is. We therefore don't see the threat to liberty that this regulation presents. But so obsessed are we with the idea that liberty means "freedom from government" that we don't even see the regulation in this new space. The reforms of the market, and the safety nets that surround it, were erected in response. Many of the progressives in the twentieth century worried about the injustices of the market. John Stuart Mill worried about the regulation by social norms in nineteenth-century England his book On Liberty is written against that regulation. Our founders feared a newly empowered federal government the Constitution is written against that fear. Every age has its potential regulator, its threat to liberty. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |