REPUBLIC.COM.

• Author: Barrett, Paul M.
• Position: Review

REPUBLIC.COM by Cass R. Sunstein Princeton University Press, $19.95

Techno-tribalists

CASS SUNSTEIN WOULD PREFER that we define the higher purposes of free speech in a digital-age republic based on the aspirations of Louis Brandeis, rather than those of Bill Gates.

The playful comparison is, of course, unfair to the Microsoft chairman, whom nobody, perhaps other than Gates himself, would consider a serious political or social thinker--let alone one on the level of Justice Brandeis. Still, the contrast helps clarify how online technology may bolster or corrode democracy. And to even the sides a bit, Sunstein suggests that Gates has an ally in Oliver Wendell Holmes, no less.

In 214 very small pages, Sunstein persuasively warns that the Internet's capacity to serve up only what users order in advance could debilitate the clash of ideas critical to informed self-government. A remarkably prolific constitutional scholar at the University of Chicago, Sunstein has made a life's work of proposing and refining pragmatic liberal policies he contends will strengthen "deliberative democracy." This book will disappoint readers hoping for fully conceived solutions to the problems he identifies in the cyberworld. But his provocative admonition to beware absolutist defenses of free speech online deserves attention, especially as the federal government continues to consider how to regulate the Internet.

To get things started, Sunstein offers several versions of the function that communication ought to play in society. Gates heralds a digital age in which the highest purpose of Internet communication is quickly satisfying consumers' customized desires. Getting exactly what you want--be it pet food, political news, video games, financial services, movies, medical information or chat room conversation--makes for a fulfilled life, according to this view. Gates dreams of a day when you can settle into the living room couch and tell your Internet-connected television, "I'm never interested in this, but I am particularly interested in that." The screen will select only the entertainment or purchasing opportunities you already know you want. Surfing channels? A waste of time. Don't even ask about newspapers or magazines. Traditional publications that offer readers a range of subject matter and opinions have no place in the Gatesian future. "For your own daily dose of news, you might subscribe to several review services and let a software agent or a human one pick...