The assumption underlying this book is that we are facing a societal transformation, a "silent revolution" in fact, with consequences at least as far reaching as those of the Industrial Revolution. The author of this book wants to intervene in the current discussion about this revolution, a discussion which is normally colored by a resigned determinism maintaining that the transformation will come about all by itself as an automatic consequence of the development of technology. As opposed to this, the author wants to politicize the debate by insisting on the fact that this silent revolution is not inextricably tied to the automatically whirring computer discs of technological development, but is dependent on a number of political choices.