ABSTRACT
Technological change is rampant in our computer-mediated society. Generation after generation of new technology and systems is born on an ever shorter time scale, each one augmenting the information-processing capacity and efficiency of our computer-based infrastructures. Computerized infrastructures are complementing the evolution of a global transportation infrastructure and these together are razing the barriers that used to separate national economies. Growing computerization is integrating all national markets and fusing financial institutions and political states into one economic identity and sovereignty. New computer and telecommunications infrastructures are liberating people and nations in a different way by creating infrastructures for a global economy and a global democracy. As computer technology has diffused throughout the world, it has initiated a global industrial and political revolution. Advancing factory and office automation are enveloping every society; computers are mediating more and more corporate and economic activity; and computer-based products and services are proliferating.
