The vision I have of the Web is about anything being potentially connected with anything. It is a vision of new freedom, and allows us to grow faster than we ever could when we were fettered by the hierarchical classification systems into which we bound ourselves(Tim Berners-Lee, Tim: Weaving the Web HarperCollins, N.Y., 1999).

When the silicon chip was discovered and personal computers became affordable, the increasing influence of this machine seemed very likely. People began to learn elementary programming, and the hardware and software became increasingly powerful and miniaturised. Some of those people went on to develop more complex skills, alongside the technological advances. A small proportion developed operating systems and software that eventually made them millionaires.

The second chapter of this historical story is currently being written. It is based on the more recent development where those powerful computers are now able to talk to each other, all over the world, 24 hours a day, at the touch of a few buttons.

The recent dot com collapse is probably just a temporary setback in the evolutionary story. The origins of the Internet were military; when its potential was suddenly recognised, another basic human quality was spliced onto it: the need and desire to make money. Some people have become extremely rich, very quickly; many more have been seriously disappointed. Yet the fundamental fact remains: the possibilities inherent in millions of networked computers. What are we going to do with it, and where will it lead?

Fighting, money and sex are enduring preoccupations. The first of these interests was the reason for creating the Internet; the second two will continue to influence it. They will fund it, develop it and define much of its content. If there is money to be made, people will investigate it. Yet alongside fiscal and corporate interest, millions of people still recognise the democratising power of being able to create their own web presence alongside everyone else, the enormous information resource at their fingertips, and the power of online communication.

Some people advocate a kind of techno-idealism, believing that the Internet will enable us to transcend many of our physical limitations. Online communication - they say - allows a purer interaction where biological gender does not exist. On the other hand, you can say that computer-mediated interaction is similar to playing a computer game: it is not real. You can develop an apparently logical thesis to support just about anything, and the rhetoric of the techno-idealists may have no basis.

The dot com enthusiasm revolved around the visionary potential of millions of networked computers. The scale of investment reflected the strength of belief in a potential that may still manifest. People were investing in an idea rather than a reality, where companies were given astronomical valuations when they were running at a loss with no foreseeable profit. Now the misguided hyper-enthusiasm has receded, we can evaluate the situation in a more balanced way.

Technology enables. It is an extension of human potentiality that allows us to communicate, create and do things previously impossible. New technology transforms society. Initially, the Internet was no more than a military network, and then academics used it quietly for many years to exchange information. When the printing press was first developed, it was used for little more than reproducing manuscripts written by monks. Then in the sixteenth century, the printing of Luther's Bible and Machiavelli's The Prince helped inaugurate a religious and secular revolution that helped shape the modern world.

At a later time, the railway transformed economics and society. Warfare and industry were dramatically different; much bigger wars could be fought and factories could supply them at an unprecedented rate. People began to travel for pleasure, as distant places were available in hours rather than days. The pace of life was sped up and a new kind of social awareness began to develop: of different people in different parts of the country. The parallels with the current information revolution are obvious.

Fighting is linked to technology, as a primordial tension underlying all civilised life. Nations and societies are carved out across the world, with resistance from divergent interests. We have to assert ourselves against unsympathetic forces as a fact of human survival.

Technology enables increasingly efficient fighting, and it allows greater access to and experience of sex. Photographic technology was greatly assisted when people quickly recognised its voyeuristic and pornographic potential. The largest volume of web content today is sex related, and it is the most frequently searched for material. Public concern for this aspect of the Internet derives from its easy accessibility, and the more depraved or illegal activities.

The Internet reflects multifarious life. As Berners-Lee says:

The dream behind the Web is of a common information space in which we communicate by sharing information. Its universality is essential: the fact that a hypertext link can point to anything, be it personal, local or global, be it draft or highly polished. There was a second part of the dream, too, dependent on the Web being so generally used that it became a realistic mirror (or in fact the primary embodiment) of the ways in which we work and play and socialize. That was that once the state of our interactions was on line, we could then use computers to help us analyse it, make sense of what we are doing, where we individually fit in, and how we can better work together. (http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/ShortHistory.html)

The question remains: where does this leave us, and what will the future be? Techno-idealists will continue to interpret the Internet in quasi-religious terms, as a contemporary version of transcendent space, equivalent to notions of incorporeal spirit. And yet the Internet may be, in a philosophical sense, a metaphor than a reality. The techno-developers recognise that communication tools can creae a higher form of accessibility and remote access. Tim Berners-Lee calls this the semantic web.

Fibre-optic technology will increase, enabling fast data transfer so film can be streamed with no loss of quality. The desktop computer will become a small cinema screen. The movie industry are trying to find legislative and technological means to prevent this from happening, just as the music industry did with the MP3 format.

Hundreds of years ago, music makers travelled the road making a living, and most of their work was never recorded. Then people wanted to make a record of it so others could enjoy it, initially with musical notation. The music industry does no more than this: makes a record of the music. Not content with this and seeking even more revenue at lower cost, now it manufactures its own bands to produce characteristically bland music. While some singers are undoubtedly skilled and intriguing people, they are not brain surgeons saving lives or international negotiators preventing war. The wealth of this industry is disproportionate to its real value. When the CD was first introduced, we were told the price would fall as productions costs fell. It never happened; CDs have risen in price alongside other consumer goods.

I like to think there are inherent balancing mechanisms in human affairs, like the homeostatic operations within the body. Internet and Internet-related technologies will continue to develop, making some people extremely rich. Other people will use the technology to build on post-60s values: a world characterised by democracy rather than political advantage, human value rather than corporate control. Perhaps the Internet is, as writer Victor Hugo once said: "an idea whose time has come".