Digital Nation
March 9, 1998
Ad-Hocracies Fill Void Left by Government
By Gary Chapman
Copyright 1998, The Los Angeles Times
AUSTIN, Texas -- The highlight of every Computers, Freedom and Privacy
conference is the closing speech of novelist Bruce Sterling, and this
year's was no exception. Sterling, a respected science fiction writer who
lives in Austin (and who is a friend of mine), is becoming the Jonathan
Swift of the digital era. The speech he delivered at the conference here
two weeks ago was simultaneously hilarious and thought-provoking.
He started by scoring off the earlier keynote speech by Brian Kahin, a
former Harvard University () researcher who now heads the information
technology program of the White House Office of Science and Technology
Policy. Kahin delivered the administration's viewpoint on the role of
government in shaping the Internet.
Kahin said, "The private sector should take the lead, and the government
should play a modest, minimalist role." This has become the mantra of the
Clinton White House whenever the Internet is the subject. "I have
confidence in self-regulation," Kahin said.
Sterling called the presentation "a very congenial and gentle speech:
'Modest' was a word he used a lot. I don't think I've ever, ever heard an
administration science and technology expert describe the aims of
American
government as 'modest.' This was a remarkable confession this gentleman
was
making. In so many words, he said that policy development is cyberspace
is
just plain too hard to do. . . . So they'll simply, modestly step back
and
let the mighty forces of technology and private enterprise thrash the
situation out on their own."
This, Sterling said provocatively, is "the giant sucking sound of
abdicated responsibility. So what fills the power vacuum? I would argue
that it is already being filled by a different and more modern political
arrangement: not bureaucracy, but ad-hocracy."
He called the audience's attention to the way Silicon Valley technology
companies are starting to take on the form -- or rather, formlessness --
of
Hollywood production teams.
Instead of the conventional model of a corporation that plots its
longevity
into eternity, the new model of high-tech business is a collection of
talented people who come together for the ephemeral goal of modeling a
"concept," and then selling it off. The team then evaporates, leaving no
trace, like quarks in a linear accelerator.
The only persistent quality is the "talent" of individuals -- a model
Hollywood has pioneered and refined to an art.
This phenomenon has developed in part because of the omnipresent shadow
of
Microsoft. Smart people try to create and then cash in on ideas before
Microsoft appropriates them for the next release of Windows and puts them
out of business.
Sterling believes that this model, which has overtaken the mind-set of
entrepreneurs in high tech, is now creeping into politics -- particularly
as we think about the future of the Internet or new media in general.
Deregulation, the buzz word of the past decade, is giving way to no
regulation (or self-regulation, which amounts to the same thing).
"You don't have to stretch too far to perceive this as a menace to
democracy," Sterling said. Ad-hocracy is "certainly a real and visible
menace to the established order, because it can throw sand in the works
at
any of a hundred different points. When the established order hits back,
it
hits back with another, rival ad-hocracy."
"Ad-hocracy" is becoming gospel in high-tech centers around the country
and
in Washington. The problem, however, is not simply that this idea
produces
friction with democracy. The new high-tech ideologists don't really
believe
in democracy or in "public values."
They are bent on convincing the public that interest group politics,
"ad-hocratic" atomization, and a kind of digital update of Social
Darwinism
are equivalent to democracy.
Thus the public is presented with a false choice about the future of the
Internet: a choice between either ham-handed bureaucratic regulation or a
Hobbesian world of raw market power. The alternative of a truly
democratic
communications sphere dominated neither by government nor commerce does
not
seem to be on the table or part of the debate.
After his discouraging description of our predicament, Sterling rallied
everyone at the conference with a call to party: "There's one important
thing about ad-hocracies, a charming quality they have. If you just get
them outside of the video surveillance, and away from their podiums and
microphones, and add a little social lubricant in the form of a couple of
beers, they spontaneously disintegrate into parties."
So party we did, at Sterling's house in Austin, setting aside for a brief
time the troubling thoughts he had lodged in our minds.
Gary Chapman is director of the 21st Century Project at the University of
Texas at Austin. He can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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