when you look out of an aeroplane window and realise that you are flying, higher
than a bird. Now think of your laptop, thinner than a brown-paper envelope, or your cellphone in the palm of your
hand. Take a moment or two to wonder at those marvels. You are the lucky inheritor of a dream come true.
The second half of the 20th century saw a collection of geniuses, warriors, entrepreneurs and visionaries labour to
create a fabulous machine that could function as a typewriter and printing press, studio and theatre, paintbrush and
gallery, piano and radio, the mail as well as the mail carrier. (41)
The networked computer is an amazing device, the first media machine that serves as the mode of production, means
of distribution, site of reception, and place of praise and critique. The computer is the 21st century's culture machine.
But for all the reasons there are to celebrate the computer, we must also tread with caution. (42)I call it a secret war
for two reasons. First, most people do not realise that there are strong commercial agendas at work to keep them in
passive consumption mode. Second, the majority of people who use networked computers to upload are not even
aware of the significance of what they are doing.
All animals download, but only a few upload. Beavers build dams and birds make nests. Yet for the most part, the
animal kingdom moves through the world downloading. Humans are unique in their capacity to not only make tools
but then turn around and use them to create superfluous material goods - paintings, sculpture and architecture - and
superfluous experiences - music, literature, religion and philosophy. (43)
For all the possibilities of our new culture machines, most people are still stuck in download mode. Even after the
advent of widespread social media, a pyramid of production remains, with a small number of people uploading

(45)
What counts as meaningful uploading? My definition revolves around the concept of "stickiness" - creations and
experiences to which others adhere.
[A] Of course, it is precisely these superfluous things that define human culture and ultimately what it is to be human.
Downloading and consuming culture requires great skills, but failing to move beyond downloading is to strip oneself
of a defining constituent of humanity.
[B] Applications like tumblr.com, which allow users to combine pictures, words and other media in creative ways
and then share them, have the potential to add stickiness by amusing, entertaining and enlightening others.
[C] Not only did they develop such a device but by the turn of the millennium they had also managed to embed it in a
worldwide system accessed by billions of people every day.
[D] This is because the networked computer has sparked a secret war between downloading and uploading - between
passive consumption and active creation - whose outcome will shape our collective future in ways we can only begin
to imagine.
[E] The challenge the computer mounts to television thus bears little similarity to one format being replaced by
another in the manner of record players being replaced by CD players.
[F] One reason for the persistence of this pyramid of production is that for the past half-century, much of the world's
media culture has been defined by a single medium - television - and television is defined by downloading.
[G]The networked computer offers the first chance in 50 years to reverse the flow, to encourage thoughtful
downloading and, even more importantly, meaningful uploading.