Английский язык: Сборник текстов и упражнений. Иваненко Т.И. - 60 стр.

      Even inequality may, in some cases, be reduced thanks to the Internet. A computer pro-
grammer in Bangalore or Siberia can use the Internet to work for a software company in Seattle
without leaving home, and can expect to be paid a wage that is closer to that of his virtual col-
leagues at the other end of the cable. The effect is to reduce income inequality between informa-
tion workers in poor countries and their poorest compatriots.
      The Internet changes many things. It has had a dramatic impact on the world of business.
Firms can now link their systems directly to those of their suppliers and partners, who can do
business online around the clock, and can learn more than ever about their customers. Economies
may be more productive as a result. For individuals, e-mail has emerged as the most important
new form of personal communication since the invention of the telephone.
      The extent to which the Internet will transform other fields of human endeavor, however, is
less certain. Even when everyone on the planet has been connected to the Internet, there will still
be wars, and pollution, and inequality. As the gizmos come and go, human nature seems to re-
main stubbornly unchanged; despite the claims of the techno-prophets, humanity cannot simply
invent away its failings. The Internet is not the first technology to have been hailed as a panacea
and it will certainly not be the last.

      NOTES

      1. Inequality – неравенство, различие
      2. Household – семья
      3. The poor are nor shunning the Internet – бедные не избегают Интернета
      4. Universal literacy – всеобщая грамотность
      5. Apparent – видимый, очевидный


                          WHAT THE INTERNET CANNOT DO?

       It is impossible that old prejudices and hostilities should longer exist, while such an in-
strument has been created for the exchange of thought between all the nations of the earth. Thus
Victorian enthusiasts acclaimed the arrival in 1858 of the first transatlantic telegraph cable.
People say that sort of thing about new technologies, even today. Biotechnology is said to be the
cure for world hunger. The sequencing of the human genome will supposedly eradicate cancer
and other diseases. The wildest optimism, though, has greeted the Internet. A whole industry of
cyber gurus has enthralled audiences (and made a fine living) with exuberant claims that the In-
ternet will prevent wars, reduce pollution, and combat various forms of inequality. However, al-
though the Internet is still young enough to inspire idealism, it has also been around long enough
to test whether the prophets can be right.
       Grandest of all the claims are those made by some of the savants at the Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology about the Internet’s potential as a force for peace. One guru, Nicholas Ne-
groponte, has declared that, thanks to the Internet, the children of the future “ are not going to
know what nationalism is”. His colleague, Michael Dertouzos, has written that digital communi-
cations will bring “ computer-aided peaces” which “ may help stave off future flare-ups of ethic
hatred and national break – ups”. The idea is that improved communications will reduce misun-
derstanding and avert conflict.
       This is not new, alas, any more than were the claims for the peace-making possibilities of
the other new technologies. In the early years of the 20th century, airplanes were expected to end
wars, by promoting international communication and (less credibly) by making armies obsolete,
since they would be vulnerable to attack from the air. After the First World War had dispelled
such notions, it was the turn of radio. “Nation shall speak peace unto nations” ran the fine motto
of Britain’s BBC World Service. Sadly, Rwanda’s Radio Mille Collins disproved the idea that
radio was an intrinsically pacific force once and for all.

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