Historicity... Now.

Social theorists make much of the information revolution as a social phenomenon. From forebodings of a ‘posthuman future’ to ideological advocates who consider the information revolution as among the myriad manifestations of globalization – a phenomenon which they, in turn, criticize as a manipulative scheme to entrench existing hegemonies – there is no shortage of pundits venturing ideas in the grand task of making sense of the information revolution and determining what it means for the human saga.

But even as that lofty task beckons, there is the equally arduous charge of grappling with the realities (and challenges) that the information revolution presents. For after all, it is not a mere phenomenon to be observed, it is – for us who actually live through it – a predicament to be solved; it is more than an abstract social concept, it is a factual condition.

It is thus in this predicament and factual condition that law is called into the picture. As a mechanism for social order, it is to law that we turn for stability in the midst of an upheaval. Will the existing legal framework suffice? If changes are needed, is the existing legal framework in such a position as will facilitate transitions or will events be typified by descriptions archetypal of revolutions – bloody, unsettling, radical?

We watch as our history unravels.