“It is impossible that old prejudices and hostilities should longer exist, while such an instrument has been created far the exchange of thought between all the nations of the earth,” acclaimed Victorian enthusiasts the arrival in 1858 of the first transatlantic telegraph cable. People say that sort of things about new technologies, even today. Biotechnology is said to be the cure for world hunger. The sequencing of the human genome will supposedly uproot cancer and other diseases. The wildest optimism, though, has greeted the Internet. A whole industry of cyber gurus has enthralled audiences (and made a fine living) with claims that the Internet will prevent wars, reduce pollution, and combat various forms of inequality However, although the Internet is still young enough to inspire idealism, it has also been around long enough to test whether the prophets can be right.
Grandest of all the claims are those made by some of the experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology about the Internet’s potential as a force for peace. Nicholas Negroponte, has declared that, thanks to the Internet, the children of the future “are not going to know what nationalism is”. His colleague, Michael Dertouzos, has written that digital communications will bring “computer-aided peace” which “may help stave off future flare-ups of ethnic hatred and national break-ups”. The idea is that improved communications will reduce misunderstandings and transfer conflict.
This is not new, any more than were the claims for the peace-making possibilities of other new technologies. In the early years of the 20th century, airplanes were expected to end wars, by promoting international communication and (less credibly) by making armies out-of-date, since they would be weak to attack from the air. After the First World War had dispelled such notions, it was the turn of radio. “Nation shall speak peace unto nation” ran the fine motto of Britain’s BBC World Service. Sadly, Radio of Rwanda disproved the idea that radio was an intrinsically peace force once and for all.
The mistake people make is to assume that wars are caused simply by the failure of different peoples to understand each other adequately. Indeed, even if that were true, the Internet can also be used to advocate conflict. Hate speech and intolerance develop in its dark comers, where government finds it hard to intervene. Although the Internet undeniably fosters communication, it will not put an end to war.
1.Nowadays, the 1858 acclaim by enthusiasts are still used to describe （ ）.
2.The phrase "stave off"(underlined in paragraph 2) probably means （ ）.
3.People will not believe the Internet can put an end to war if they（ ）.
