The link between control and location; the path from humans to individuals (and citizens) and to (today’s) users

The less obvious new perspective made possible by the digital world relates to the transformation of humans to users. This is the latest step in human development. It is the result of the digital world breaking down the traditional models of location and control that have been known to humanity since the beginning of time. As seen above, in the analogue world, control over Things and Beings is, more or less, retained by the information platform that is their state, even in the event of relocation. Spatial, analogue-world relocation decides (or, at least, affects) control. How does this translate in the digital world? The digital world is artificial; therefore Things and Beings in it are created from scratch by specific identifiable Beings (individuals and organisations). It is these Beings, and consequently their states, that retain control over their creations, as is (and has always been) the case with anything new created in the analogue world (see §06.00.04). However, here lies the critical, fundamental difference between the analogue world and the digital world: as seen above, in the event of relocation, control in the former follows the Thing or Being, it moves from the territory of one state to another. By contrast, control in the digital world (for the moment, at least) remains with its creator-Being and originating state. In other words, in the analogue world information on a Thing, if moved from one state to another, is processed only (or mainly) in the latter’s territory and is therefore controlled by the latter. The same is true for a Being (an organisation) that decides to process information in another state (to relocate). By contrast, in the digital world a Thing or a Being never leaves the territory of the state where it was created: it can process information, or information can be processed on it, from a(n) (analogue-world) distance, from far away, from (or in, as the case may be) the territory of other states. The age-old link between control and location has been irreversibly broken.

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