## 3 Information as Function
### Information as Control
According to [PERSON], telecommunications in the 19 th and 20 th century for the most part further extended the emphasis on control over territory, and the drive to empire, whether it involved military control, political hegemony, or economic power [20]. Again, the introduction of telegraphy stands as a watershed moment in the history of information, extending control over space, and opening the door to the nationalism movements of the 19 th century, and increased centralization of authority [19, 20]. An excellent example of the cybernetic function of the telegraph was its use to solve the problem of railroad accidents. With the introduction of the steam-powered trains in the early 19 th century came a significant speed-up in transportation, but no way to control railway traffic. Not only did the telegraph provide a means of communication that could easily outrun a speeding locomotive, but it introduced the possibility of homogenizing time. Clocks,while serving a cybernetic function locally, could not be synchronized from one city to the next, and trains likewise could not be coordinated, until the telegraph introduced instantaneous transmission. With the newfound ability to set the time simultaneously at different locations, the railroad companies in the United States established the first time zones, whose administration was soon taken over by the federal government, an innovation that then spread across the globe. In this way, trains travelling from different locations would be travelling according to the same time settings, and this new form of synchronization drastically reduced collisions between locomotives heading in opposite directions. Additionally, telegraph and telephone together provided the control needed for organizations to develop horizontally, with offices in different locations, creating the foundations for the modern corporation. In the 20 th century, [PERSON]'s wireless provided a measure of control over ships at sea that had previously been unthinkable; for this reason, governments took control of the airwaves following the outbreak of the First World War, and retained control (directly or, as in the US, by maintaining ownership and leasing spectrum to private interests) after the armistice was signed. Of course, the digital computer technologies that were developed during the mid-20 th century and continue to evolve gave us new forms of information processing, and has come a long way towards fully realizing [PERSON]'s vision of a cybernetic future. Coupled with wired technology, especially the internet, and wireless technologies that stretch from satellites orbiting overhead to handheld cell phones and mobile devices, we have gained new powers to control and coordinate our own activities, at the same time that we have become increasingly more subject to control and coordination through and by our devices. We become enveloped by a new media environment characterized by new forms of networked organization, and systems of increasing complexity, both technological and social. In his outstanding scholarly study, _The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society_, [PERSON] argues that the speed-up of society due to the invention of the steam engine and the ensuing industrial revolution led to a crisis of control throughout western societies, and this crisis in turn led to the development of new technologies and techniques to help restore control [75]. In addition to inventions such as the telegraph, [PERSON] points to the extension and formalization of bureaucracy and the institution of rationalized procedures in government and other organizations, new methods of data processing such as [PERSON]'s punch card tabulator, the development of new accounting techniques, [PERSON]'s scientific management, [PERSON]'s assembly line, and various techniques related to advertising, public relations, sales, and marketing.