World Future Society — Cyber Society Forum, essay by Alexandru Tufui and Tudorel Fatu

Cyber Society Forum

What is the Globally Information-
Based Society Followed By?
By Alexandru Tugui and Tudorel Fatu

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Abstract: In this study, we intend to point out some specific aspects of the information society, together with the four waves of the information technology. Since the progress of the human society is impossible to stop in a future globally information-based society, the following question came to us naturally: "What is after that?" Our answer is direct and concise and involves the intelligence of the future systems and the possibilities of successfully linking these technologies to the biological systems and not only.

Keywords: Knowledge, intelligence, information technologies, Cyberspace, Internet, e-Revolution, calm technologies, invisible technologies, mind-power technologies, bio-techno-system.

I. Information and communication technology
As we all know, the grounds of the future globally information-based society are made up by the recent information and communication technologies, as well as the ones that are waiting to be discovered in the following two or three decades. We are directly interested in whether people will be ready to handle these modern technologies. The answer is obviously affirmative, since man adjusts to the environment and to "well-being". As long as using these technologies generates a profit, regardless of its form and at a convenient price, humanity will very quickly adjust to technological novelties.

Definition of information technologies
Specialists do not unanimously agree on the definition of information technologies; however, the most relevant of all consists of understanding the collections of technological fields, which develop simultaneously and interdependently. Among the most important fields, we mention: computer science, electronics and communications.

In other words, there are two basic technological fields on which rely the information and communication technologies, namely: computer science and communication. It is obvious that there can be no computer science without electronics and other fields related to it, like photonics and others.

According to B.H. Boar, information technologies allow the preparation, collecting, transport, finding, memorizing, access, presentation and transformation of information of any kind (voice, graphics, text, video and image). These moves may occur among people, between people and equipment and/or among pieces of equipment. Therefore, figure 1 shows the representation pattern for information technologies.

A similar definition is given by the Commerce and Industry Department of Great Britain, which claims that information technologies allow "collecting, storing and transmission of information in the form of voice, image, text, as well as digital form, due to micro-electronics, by combining computer science and telecommunications".

In other words, information technologies rely especially on two main components:

• Information technologies: Hardware and Software;
• Communication technologies: Networks, Optic transmissions, Wireless transmissions, ISDN, Communication standards etc.

Definition of the information-based society
Generally speaking, we may say that the information society may be defined as an information-based society. In a modern meaning, we may speak of an information-based society since the use of computers in economy, after the building of the ENIAC in 1947, that is since the second half of the 50’.

However, at the level of every stage of development of the human society, we may say there has always been an emphasis on information. Here are some examples: the ABACUS (3000 b. Ch.), the paper (50 b. Ch.); the printing machine (1452); the newspaper (1700); the telegraph (1837); the photography (1839); the telephone (1876); the electricity (1882); the tabulator (1890); movies (1891); the radio – television (1920 – 1938); robots (1921); transistors (1947). All these moments contributed to a better use of information in society. In other words, we may say that the globally information-based society is nothing more than the all times, normal human society, with traces of information modernism specific to information avalanche.

Transition towards the globally information-based society
The following years will bring about essential changes in our every day life. Thus, the use of electronic computer will be extended to all activity fields, due to an increase by almost 100 thousand times of the current performance, until it reaches the performance of the human brain, together with a reduction of its sizes to the shape of a chip. The name of this computer will be system-on-a-chip, and its price will be so small that its package will be more expensive than the system itself. At the same time, the information and communication technologies, together with the discoveries of new materials, shall lead to the so-called Cyberspace, whose spine will be the INTERNET and the virtuality through digitization. Moreover, the federal government of the USA has recently launched a 5 year research program, financed with 400 million dollars for the future development of the INTERNET, that should be 100 faster than the current one and will be called NREN. Finally, the Cyberspace will include the BODY AREA NETWORK (BAN).

Waves of information technology
At network level, performance will be amazing. Thus, many types of networks are meant to fulfill people’s dreams about a wholly or partially cyber-based world and about an information super-highway.

In other words, the grounds of tomorrow’s society will be constituted by information and computer-mediated communications. J.A. O’Brien has drawn up a globally information-based society transition chart and he reckons that humanity, in order to reach that point, must go through four waves, namely:

• Computerized Enterprises, corresponding to the period 1970-2010;
• Networked Knowledge Workers, which started in 1980;
• Global Internetworked Society, started around 1992-1993;
• Global Information Society, which will begin after 2010.

Figure 2. The four waves of information technology

As it is presented in figure 2, until 2010 we will be crossing a period of time when the first three waves superpose, what means we are in a transition period with its specific risks and advantages. Thus, as we can see, humanity has not even gone through the first stage, but two other have already been started and in 2010 the fourth will start as well. In other words, until 2010, the human society is crossing a continuous transition process towards this information world-wide covering. Therefore, the traces of modernity will become even more obvious as we approach 2010, when the first wave of the simple information technology is completed and the fourth wave is more and more present, namely the "Globally information society" wave.

In the first wave, all the attention was drawn towards organizations as a key element in obtaining a profit. Therefore, a decrease in the time and information obtaining cost was desired, as well as a diminution of production costs of the electronic computer when computing. The purpose has been and still is the computerization of companies.

The second wave emphasizes especially the individual performance in a computerized environment. In these circumstances, the increase in productivity is given by the knowledge individuals have and the degree of interconnection. The purpose of going through this stage is constituted by the reaching of the status of interlinked expert worker.

The third wave is aimed at achieving connectivity at a global level within the society where the workers of the knowledge and information-based society perform their activities. Therefore, the value-creating activities will bring about an increase in efficiency. The final goal of this wave is reaching the globally interlinked society (network society).

When entering the fourth wave, the computerization of companies is considered completed, which means that like pens, computers will be a regular tool that everyone will afford at small costs. This will be the stage when the concept of system-on-chip will be generalized and its package will be more expensive than the system itself.

New forms of labor and specific activities of the information society
There are more and more talks about an e-Revolution of information technologies. We think that the term of e-Revolution is not properly used, since it involves a moment of reference as of which the activities performed are no longer valid, are upset or disturbed, which is only partially true.

In the terms of our conversation, many activities would become inefficient if they were performed without a modern information support, but note that they were not upset, but only replaced. This leads us to the idea that they may at any time be performed without an information support, but during a longer period of time and at much higher costs.

Information and communication technologies will have a major impact on the company due to the changes of the new work forms and the activities the latter may generate. The category of the new work forms includes: tele-commutation, virtual office and tele-work.

Under these circumstances, specific to the new work forms, activities like tele-education, tele-medicine, tele-centers, cyber making, tele-shopping, virtual communities etc., will increasingly make their presence felt.

II. What is there after the globally information-based society?
We have hardly entered the information society, and we already ask ourselves questions like: What is there after that? What will be the center of attention after information? Specialty studies take as a reference point for the new globally information-based society the following 40-50 years, but after these years, what new technologies will humans discover?

A first starting point could be the so-called calm technologies, a second starting point would be the invisible technologies, mind-power technologies and why not bio (mechanic, information, magnetic etc.) technologies. However, what will happen afterwards? Here is a question to which the futurologists of tomorrow will have to find a plausible answer.

If we analyze the evolution of society by means of the classical comparison: data – information – knowledge, then we will be able to discuss the technology of knowledge, the society of knowledge or the intelligent society.

Figure 3. The following wave after the globally information-based society

By corroborating the above-mentioned ideas, we believe that the following wave might start around 2035 - 2040 and may be called the intelligence and knowledge stage. This stage will have as its center of attention information exploitation in order to reach the desired level of intelligence for a certain entity. This will be the period when the capacities of the human brain are reached to a certain extent, when the concept of bio-techno-system is generalized, that is hybrid systems between biological systems and technical systems, by means of computer science.

Bibliography
Boar, B.,H. (2001) The Art of Strategic Planning for Information Technologies, 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York.
Denning, P. J., Metcalfe, R.M., (eds.) (1997), Beyond calculation. The Next Fifty Years of Computing, Copernicus, Springer-Verlag, New York.
Dumitriu, F. (2001) Information-based accounting system in modern companies, Junimea Publishing House, Iasi.
O’Brien, J.A. (1999) Management Information Systems. Managing Information Technology in the Internetworked Enterprise, McGraw-Hill, Boston.
Patriciu, V.V., Cryptographics in Cyberspace, Computer Press Agora, URL address http://www.byte.ro/byte95-03/vic.html.

About the Authors:
Alexandru Al. Tugui is Ph. D. Senior Lecturer at Faculty of Economy and Business Administration at the "Al. I. Cuza" University of Iasi, Romania. He is the author and co-author of 25 books and over 70 journal articles. Over his career he focused on expert systems, multimedia systems, and management informatics resources.
Tudorel Fatu is Ph. D. Professor of Business Informatics at Faculty of Economy and Business Administration at the "Al. I. Cuza" University of Iasi, Romania. He is the author of 15 books and over 80 journal articles. Over his career he focused on the use of information technology in business.

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