At the Speed of Irrelevance

CHAPTER 4The Presidents' Call to Duty

IT WAS DURING THE 1990s when the American leadership in shaping the future of the Internet became evident. Through that leadership America was also shaping its own future. At the forefront were the ambitious goals and vision of the executive branch. President Clinton and Vice President Gore saw the interconnected network of capabilities as fundamental to the development of the country. So much so that the term “information superhighway” was defined by the McGraw-Hill Computer Desktop Encyclopedia, published in 2001, as “a proposed high-speed communications system that was touted by the Clinton/Gore administration to enhance education in America in the 21st century. Its purpose was to help all citizens regardless of their income level. The Internet was originally cited as a model for this superhighway; however, with the explosion of the World Wide Web, the Internet became the information superhighway” (Wiki n.d.).

In his address at a 1994 conference in South America, Vice President Gore started his speech by reflecting on the words of Nathaniel Hawthorne, which VP Gore had read when he was still in high school. The words were: “By means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time. The round globe is a vast … brain, instinct with intelligence!” (Gore 1994). VP Gore explained that Hawthorne was inspired by the development of the telegraph, and he foresaw what America ...