Here's an interesting UseNet post:
Date: Monday, 10 May 1982 14:58-PDT
Subject: Another irreversable and unconscious decision
From: norm at RAND-UNIX
I believe that American Society is in the process of unconsciusly
committing itself to an irreversable restructuring based on an undesigned
network -- a single national (nay, international) net composed of many
overlapping nets of computers. I believe that as this undesigned net
evolves, all of us and our institutions will change to exploit and
accomodate it. I belive that these changes will make it impossible to
"change our minds" about the use of this net.
I don't assert that this development is good or that it is bad. I do
assert that we, as a society, should try and understand what we are doing
and decide if we want to do it.
An example of a technology which society irreversibly adapted without any
consideration by any of the members or institutions of society of its
irreversibility and of the wisdom of making that irreversible step, is the
institution of the privately owned automobile and supporting institutions,
including the road networks, the fuel distribution systems, motels, etc.,
and all the other private and government institutions associated with the
private passenger automobile. I do not argue that the adoption of the
privately owned passenger automobile as one of our principal modes of human
transportation was wise or unwise. I only argue
(1) that its adoption was essentially an irreversible "decision."
Irreversible not in that if society wanted to badly enough the "decision"
could not be reversed, but that we could not now do so without large-scale
economic, political and social dislocations which, as a result, make the
"decision", in effect, irreversible.
and
(2) this "decision" was made by society without very much of any deliberate
awareness by the members of society, by any of the professional thinkers of
the society, or by the institutions of the society that we were going down
a path of no return. Each individual and institution took very minor steps
which seemed reasonable and which did not seem very dramatic at the time.
and
(3) this decision changed the way we court, work, play, sleep, buy,
sell,... It effected everthing from our sexual mores to our legal system.
Another example is the recent revolution in retail credit generated by the
bank credit cards. This application of computer technology has, I believe,
irreversibly revolutionized and changed the nature of retail credit.
Again, I do not argue as to whether or not the decision was a good one or a
bad one. I only argue that it could not now be reversed without shocks to
the nature of our economy, and that the acts constituting the decision to
go to this type of retail credit system were never considered by society as
to their wisdom as to whether or not they were worth going to, etc.
We have not yet committed ourselves to the reorganization of society which
will depend on everybody and every institution being on line. Do we want
to? What would the consequences be? How do we decide if we want to travel
down this one way road?