THE INFORMATION SOCIETY: A HISTORY OF THE FUTURE

CYBERSALON in association with the BRITISH COMPUTER SOCIETY, NORTH LONDON BRANCH

Wednesday 22nd February 2006, 6.15 for 6.30pm
BCS, 1st floor, 5 Southampton St, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7HA
Cost: Admission is free and everyone is welcome. Bring your colleagues and friends interested in IT, but please register in advance, as soon as possible via the BCS North London Branch web-site: <www.nlondon.bcs.org>.
Nearest tubes: Charing Cross, Covent Garden

2006 Evening Events at the heart of London - in touch with key IT topics

This lecture is a history of the future. It will show how our contemporary understanding of the Net is shaped by a forty-year-old prophecy. During the Cold War, the rulers of America appropriated the ideas of Marshall McLuhan for the propaganda struggle against its Russian rival. The USA was building the next stage of human civilisation – the information society – and the rest of the world would have to follow its path into the networked future. As the owner of time, America controlled space. In 1968, the Vietnamese demonstrated the fallacies of this hi-tech ideology to the global TV audience. Yet, in 2006, we’re still being told that the Net is creating the information society – and America today is everywhere else tomorrow. If we don’t want the future to be what it used to be, we must invent our own future.

Join us at this special event with Dr. Richard Barbrook (Westminster University and Cybersalon), author of the book Imaginary Futures which can be found at <www.imaginaryfutures.net>. The main lecture will be followed by an open discussion with the audience.

Further information about this and other BCS activities is available via the website, else via email to Branch Chairman Dalim Basu: <dalim1[AT]onetel.com>.