It's ancient history, writes Stephen Budiansky. No-one asked these questions with the advent of the automobile, which led to unplanned suburbanisation, or with the rise of television, which led to the decline of our political parties. One of the first large studies of the Net's impact on society, it found that obsession with the Internet was causing people to spend less time with friends and family and shopping in stores, and more time working at home after hours.
History can supply some interesting parallels.
But the scribe Sesh, known for his daring views, challenged the King's assertions, releasing the results of a survey that finds that people who are well fed tend to keep to themselves. Food riots pull people out of their shells and get them thinking about something larger than themselves. Now there are going to be literally millions of people staying at home, with minimal social interaction. But in Greece, the elder Sceptic Pyrrho of Elis warned that no-one was considering the social impact of such a radical new technology. These are activities that bring us in regular contact with our fellow man, several times a day.