The Web is an instrument of peace, and deserves the Nobel Prize

Riccardo Luna, the editor of the magazine Wired Italia, has defined the Internet as “the first weapon of mass construction.” On the occasion of Science for Peace, on Friday 19 November, Wired is launching the project “Internet for Peace”, putting forward the Internet as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. On Friday, the website, in English, www.internetforpeace.org, will be showing all of the contents of the project.

“We have understood that the Internet is not a network of computers, but an infinite network of people,” says the magazine’s poster.

Men and women, of all the latitudes, connect to each other, through the biggest relationship platform that mankind has ever had. The digital culture has created the foundations for a new civilisation. And this civilisation is creating discourse, comparison and solidarity through communication. Because democracy always sprouts where there is a welcome, listening, exchange and sharing. And meeting someone who is different is always the most effective antidote to hatred and conflict. This is why the Internet is an instrument of peace; each of us, online, can be a seed of non violence. The Internet deserves the next Nobel Peace Prize. It will be a Nobel Prize to all of us.”

But not everyone agrees. The “Internauts” are divided between those who are for, and those, against. Some point out that access to information, itself, is not an instrument of democracy, and that real freedom stems from the input from society, and reaches the institutions that realise it. Others, for example, the American academic BJ Fogg, consider the Internet to be an instrument that is so powerful that it could help to achieve world peace within the next 30 years.

As stated, the candidature will be made tomorrow, on Friday, in Milan.

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