> Of course, there are aspects of exploitation, surveillance and manipulation. But are they really more essential to the experience of internet technology t

> Of course, there are aspects of exploitation, surveillance and manipulation. But are they really more essential to the experience of internet technology than the huge possibilities that they have opened up? A great question. Unfortunately today, I think they are. What I see as the principle difference between the Zeitgeist of 1945 and the spirit of 2023 is our relation to struggle. By '45 we'd probably realised that the war had tipped toward Allied victory. From then until perhaps the 1970s we were possessed of a mind that "Things are worth fighting for", and that science and technology are a struggle "towards good". We had not yet processed Auschwitz, Dachau and Belsen. Cold-war notwithstanding, not only was the wonder of science on a heady incline, the fruits were magnificent, benevolent and cheaply available to all, from the highway to the boardroom to the kitchen. There's the "dream". Not only were we the benefactors of technology, but we were in control of it. Today I find I must agree with David Graeber and Peter Thiel, that Francis Fukuyama's conceit of the "End of History" has seeped infectiously into the Western mind and extinguished optimism. One of the things we must urgently fight - and it is as "worth fighting for" as ever - is the re-emergence tyrannical abuse through technology, and therefore to keep it in balance as a beneficent force. Looking through these pages I'd say that sadly most of us, perhaps numbed by convenience and complacency, have lost the will for that fight.