Hello, Futurographers,
Today, we’re excited to announce the start of our latest Futurography course, a monthlong investigation of who (if anyone) controls the internet. If the cyberattacks and dodgy email servers we’ve found out about recently have taught us anything, it’s that we could all stand to know a little more about how the internet actually works. In the weeks ahead, we’ll be looking into that from an array of angles. To kick things off, we’re starting with a conversational introduction to the topic, as well as a cheat sheet featuring key players, major debates, and the lingo you need to know. And on Nov. 10, we will hold an event in Washington, D.C., to ask: “Will the Internet Always Be American?” For more information and to RSVP, visit the New America website.
There’s a lot more on the way, but in the meantime, we hope you’ll explore our October unit on the future of ownership (if you haven’t already). Here’s what we published:
- Introduction: How are ownership norms changing? Get the details here.
- Cheat Sheet: Familiarize yourself with the most important debates, further reading, and more.
- You Bought It, but You Don’t Own It: Our increasingly digital world has exposed troubling gaps in copyright law.
- Save the Right to Hack: The do-it-yourself movement has increasingly come into conflict with legal standards surrounding ownership.
- Ownership and Deception in the Digital Marketplace: Those “buy now” buttons on websites don’t always mean what people think they mean.
- How a Printer Company Redefined Ownership: Lexmark’s attempts to regulate its products created a situation where a customer could be charged with patent infringement for refilling ink cartridges.
- How Will Self-Driving Cars Change Cities?: This video and accompanying article investigate some prominent theories about the ways shared automobiles might change urban environments.
- Paying to Have and Not to Hold: Why are we willing to pay more for digital products than their physical equivalents?
- Will Technology Make Ownership Obsolete?: We held an event about these topics in Washington, D.C. Read a recap of that event here.
Once you’ve made it through all of that, you should be ready for our quiz on the future of ownership. And then we hope you’ll share your own thoughts in our survey. Come back later this week for a write-up of your responses.
Buying it never,
Jacob Brogan
for Future Tense
Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University.
