Cyber World: An Enabling Agora or a Constraining Mirage?

This article is based on Jacques Elull's notion of "fascinated people" in relation to technique and technology. It briefly reviews some of the advantages of the democratic aspects of the cyber world and analyzes the limits and future worries regarding the cyber world. Notwithstanding the limitations on the creation, management, and control of the cyber world resulting from the digital divide and constraints imposed by government and corporate interests, this article stresses the democratic nature of the participatory attribute of the cyber world. The article advances the possibility that through people's participation in the cyber world's public sphere a world utopian civilization is possible.