Digital Diplomacy and Our Not So Distant Future

In recent news, Google and the U.S. State Department unveiled their plans to work with Iraq’s National Museum to digitize their collection and offer a “virtual tour” of Ancient Mesopotamia with Google tools. Comcast officially announced that they are acquiring 51% of NBC Universal. Stevie Wonder was appointed a position at the UN as a Messenger of Peace. And poor Tiger Woods is being skewered by the media.

So what do all these things have in common? Each one of these headlines forecast major developments in technology that will profoundly affect our future. Although I don’t have a crystal ball, I do have a healthy imagination and read lots of Warren Ellis comic books. So here are four things that I think will change the way we conduct our lives in the coming years.

Warning, this blog post contains “forward-looking statements.”

1. 21st Century Statecraft
Corporate and national allegiances have always shaped diplomacy. Think of it this way, the East India Company is to Britain as Google is to the U.S. Both companies chartered into unknown territories on behalf of their nations and in return each received special treatment. The Google/U.S./Iraqi National Museum project points to how Google will become the nanny of all of Iraq’s orphaned, or in this case, looted, information or artifacts. Google will be the all-seeing eye of the United States government across all borders.

2. End-to-End Economics
“We believe distribution and content can work together, but it doesn’t happen by accident—you have to manage it,” said Comcast Chief Operating Officer Stephen Burke, who will be overseeing the takeover of NBC Universal. “We could look for new, innovative ways to bring content to market by just doing deals with media companies, but the truth is that it’s much easier to take risks and try new things when you’re in the same company.” And there you have it. Content and distribution are back together. Comcast CEO, Brian Roberts has already blogged about the deal and the antitrust hoards are gathering. The End to End Principle receives economic validation with this monumental deal.

3. Identity Management
Because those text messages and emails we all crank out only “occupy space” on a server somewhere, they are never really deleted. Media theorist Douglas Ruskoff does not paint a very pretty picture for Tiger Woods or for any of us churning out digital matter. Managing our digital lives through emails, Facebook updates, or SMS will become a critical facet of inter-personal communication. Every digital communication we have is archived somewhere, so if you don’t want private matters broadcast to eternity, it’s probably best to use two cans and a string or go for the good ol’ face-to-face meeting.

4. Russell’s Paradox
Bertrand Russell is considered to be one of the 20th century’s premier logicians. He is most renowned for his contribution to the foundation of mathematics and what is called Russell’s Paradox, which shows that a logically impossible scenario is apparently plausible. This reminds me of one of my favorite Stevie Wonder tunes, “Love’s In Need of Love Today”. As a UN Messenger of Peace, Stevie has already promised to compose a hit song to raise awareness of the challenges faced by people with disabilities. The blind prophet is a well-known archetype, but with economic, technological and social instability being the norm, it seems like counter-intuitive logic will be a governing force in days to come.