The development of information technology in the 20th century revolutionized the way in which data spreads around the world, causing both the level of speed and also the level of precision with which data can be sent anywhere to push forward the pace of human life on Earth and allow for stronger multinational business and trade. The increasing speed and quality of information flow has given benefits to both governmental actors and to non-governmental actors. Governmental actors have gained better data surveillance and storage methods, better analysis tools and swifter communications methods. Non-government actors have gained capabilities for faster and more diffused dissemination of information, faster communication times, and better copying of digital information, as well as the potential for greater amounts of information production. For as long as the full range of human thought processes cannot be mechanized by utilizable data processing technology, the current level of information technology grants nongovernmental organizations a long-term advantage over governments; however, this advantage will be tempered by the lag in implementation, as well as continually imperfect distribution of information.
Information technology benefits governments in a variety of ways. Digitization of citizens’ information allows governments to track, analyze, and communicate information regarding its citizens internally. Anyone who has been stopped while driving in the United States has experienced this, as a police officer will run a digital search on the license plate of the stopped car and the license number of the driver to see if there are any outstanding warrants or incidents pertaining to the car and driver. At a higher level, a signals intelligence system such as the ECHELON system jointly operated on behalf of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand can intercept and analyze transmitted data such as telephone calls, faxes, and e-mails. Benefits to such a system could include interceptions of possible terrorist communication . In the commercial realm, increasingly sophisticated systems that monitor purchasing patterns allow businesses to tailor advertising and marketing towards individual consumers, leading to theoretical increases in efficiency of sales. However, systems similar to the ECHELON system can also lead to a loss of privacy and freedom for citizens- for example, it is possible for a country such as the People’s Republic of China to scan its phone messages and tell when someone is speaking on a topic which may be considered subversive to the government, and to monitor and control the domestic internet to prevent the spread of information which it deems unacceptable. The downside of tracking of purchasing patterns also becomes apparent when an individual is flooded with unsolicited e-mail after purchasing a book about baseball for a friend on an online marketplace site such as amazon.com: within a week, one might receive several unsolicited and irrelevant mails advertising for items such as baseball memorabilia, baseball tickets, baseball equipment. While such advertising may be blocked through the use of email ‘spam’ filters, there is an opportunity cost involved with the use of such filters as potentially important mails could be blocked by the filters, and lost forever unless a user dedicates himself to regular review of his ‘junk’ email folder. In the long run, future technology may lead to a face-recognition system (such systems are already in place in certain airports , although they are not yet infallible) or retinal-scan techniques which may some day mature to be used in a way such as that depicted in director Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film ‘Minority Report’.
Keeping in the vein of fiction, some may fear that in the end, new advances in information technology hardware might allow governments to set up an information gathering and propaganda distribution network similar to the one used by the government of Oceania in George Orwell’s 1949 novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’, in which perfected use of monitoring, propaganda, and economic production controls allows a totalitarian state to exert near-absolute control over its citizens. However, such an outlook neglects the issue of software. Currently, at some point, humans must still be involved in a discretionary role over the decisions made using data gathered by new information technology systems, leading to issues for when humans fail to synthesize information in a suitably prompt and succinct manner, the so called ‘analysis paralysis’, as well as other issues having to do with information overload. Furthermore, the advent of the personal computer and high speed internet has allowed individuals and non-governmental organizations to organize through channels such as mass e-mailing, video sharing sites, and social networking sites. The decentralized nature of the internet, which figured prominently in its original design, as well as and the rapid speed at which digitized information can be copied and modified, allows thought expressed online to be resilient in its survival, so that even as a government such as China moves to cut off an online site which expresses contrary opinions, users have copied and posted the opinions to several other sites, the users of which can then copy the information and continue its spread to more sites, thereby frustrating the efforts of governments to control information.
Naturally, information technology has not yet proved to be a magic bullet for democracy-seeking citizens of modern nation-states, a low signal-noise ratio in terms of political thought still plagues citizens, and the above-mentioned issues of paralysis of analysis and information overload affect all human beings, not just those who work for governments, and such limitations will continue to affect human beings until human intelligence can be fully automated. New information technology will push forward the current level of efficiency: a good example is current United States President-elect Barack Obama’s use of online video sharing sites to spread his speeches during the most recent presidential election. However, the world currently still depends significantly on traditional media, and Obama’s use of video in his victory represents the grasp of how to use a new communication, rather than a total paradigm shift of the United States’ political process. It remains to be seen as to whether the populace will be able to use the currently available tools to transform their relationship with modern nation-states.
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