Trade-offs of Control

Our look at these contrasting spaces should give depth to the idea that architecture matters and highlight the different ways in which the code of a cyberspace might enable or disable certain forms of life. Cyberspaces differ not only in the amount of regulation that each permits; they also differ in the values they embrace and the kind of regulation they permit. Some spaces can be regulated by norms; code can change that. Some places cannot be regulated by norms; sometimes code can change that as well. The regulating norms can be those of real space as well as of cyberspace. And, as we saw in the discussion of Jake Baker, the architecture of cyberspace may permit an escape from the regulations of real space into a space regulated very differently. The choices are rich, but they are choices.¹

[QUERY: I remain confused by this discussion. Now I think the point might be that code influences the extent to which norms, laws and markets regulate online spaces. Or maybe the point is that there are just a lot of interections going on-- real world/virtual, code/norms, norms/ behavior, code/behavior?]

If we let the invisible hand work unimpeded, these choices will be made according to the set of interests that are expressed by commerce on the Net. In some cases, certainly, those interests will be constrained by government. But now we must think specifically about how we could structure the choices we will confront and how we could resolve the conflicts of values these spaces will present.

Our choices in each case are two. We can try to make cyberspace the same as real space, investing it with the same values, or we can give cyberspace values and properties that are fundamentally different.

There is no general answer as to which choice we should make. But if we decide we should preserve values from real space, we need a way to think about how. And if we decide we should change values from real space, then change them to what?

The next chapter is about how we might constitute values differently. It is grounded in a broader sense of this idea of “regulation.” Using this broader sense, we will see what control might be possible. And in chapter 8, we will see some of the limits on that control.

Both chapters are about how we might exercise choice. This chapter has been about the differences in cyberspaces that these choices make. In part 3, we will consider which differences we should want and which we should avoid. We will, in other words, practice this choice.

Footnotes

¹ Mike Godwin makes a similar point about the construction of any virtual community: “What most of us will want in the future, I think, is a place where we’re known and accepted on the basis of what Martin Luther King Jr. called ‘the content of our character.’ But without planning, without a deliberate architectural vision about shaping virtual communities—and, most of all, without true freedom of speech—the incoming hordes of cyberspace inhabitants will continue to be alienated, isolated, without any sense of belonging. Virtually homeless”; Cyber Rights, 41. Edit Delete