But so is the Information Age environment. Like trying to tell the water where to go once the floodgates are opened, this Luddite sentiment could never be translated into action. It's time the mass media realizes microprocessors are more than just the brains of our personal computers and the Information Age is more than just email. In many cars, a pinnacle of Machine Age factory production, the value of the electronics has surpassed the value of the steel. Change is everywhere.
Wired embraces change, even at the risk of relentless hipness.
Not surprising is a level of resistance, or even scorn, from those whose lives and livelihoods are firmly enmeshed in the paradigm of the Machine Age. It openly states that much of the Old Media will wind up on the scrap heap of history and that free-markets, and not Al Gore's info superhighway with guard rails, will dominate the future. There is, of course, a contradiction to the media messenger of the future arriving in the medium of the past. And, with the launching of HotWired last year, Wired 's owners established a virtual gathering place on the Internet. For today, Wired remains the lifestyle magazine of choice for Information Age cognoscenti.