The internet in a cup 咖啡中的網路世界

[Christmas Specials] [2003.12.18]The internet in a cup 咖啡中的網路世界 Coffee-houses咖啡廳The internet in a cup咖啡中的網路世界Coffee fuelled the information exchanges of the 17th and 18th centuries咖啡促進17世紀及18世紀的信息交流Dec 18th 2003 | from the print edition2003年12月18日 | 來自印刷版WHERE do you go when you want to know the latest business news, follow commodity prices, keep up with political gossip, find out what others think of a new book, or stay abreast of the latest scientific and technological developments? Today, the answer is obvious: you log on to the internet. Three centuries ago, the answer was just as easy: you went to a coffee-house. There, for the price of a cup of coffee, you could read the latest pamphlets, catch up on news and gossip, attend scientific lectures, strike business deals, or chat with like-minded people about literature or politics.當你想知道最新的商業訊息，緊跟商品價格，追蹤政治流言，尋找他人對新書的觀點，或者跟上最新的科學技術發展，你會去哪兒呢？今天，答案顯而易見：到互聯網上搜索即可。300年前，答案也很簡單：去咖啡館。在咖啡館裡，用一杯咖啡的錢，你可以閱讀新出版的手冊，了解新聞和八卦，參加科技講座，談妥生意，或者與觀點類似的人談談文學或政治。The coffee-houses that sprang up across Europe, starting around 1650, functioned as information exchanges for writers, politicians, businessmen and scientists. Like today"s websites, weblogs and discussion boards, coffee-houses were lively and often unreliable sources of information that typically specialised in a particular topic or political viewpoint. They were outlets for a stream of newsletters, pamphlets, advertising free-sheets and broadsides. Depending on the interests of their customers, some coffee-houses displayed commodity prices, share prices and shipping lists, whereas others provided foreign newsletters filled with coffee-house gossip from abroad.約在1650年，咖啡館興起於歐洲大陸，曾作為作家、政治家、商人和科學家交換信息的場所。就像今天的網路、博客和論壇一樣，咖啡館內也是生機勃勃，經常是一些不實信息的發源地，尤其是特殊話題或政觀點。這裡是新聞通訊，時論冊子，報紙廣告和版面新聞的批發點。依據顧客的喜好，一些咖啡店還會列出商品價格，股票價格還有船運名單，另一些咖啡館還會提供外國時事消息以滿足咖啡館內人們多國外八卦的好奇。Rumours, news and gossip were also carried between coffee-houses by their patrons, and sometimes runners would flit from one coffee-house to another within a particular city to report major events such as the outbreak of a war or the death of a head of state. Coffee-houses were centres of scientific education, literary and philosophical speculation, commercial innovation and, sometimes, political fermentation. Collectively, Europe"s interconnected web of coffee-houses formed the internet of the Enlightenment era.謠言，新聞，小道消息也在各個咖啡館間傳播。有時，像戰爭爆發或國家元首暴斃這樣的事件會想長了腿一樣從一個城市的咖啡館傳到另一個咖啡館。咖啡館是科學教育、文學哲學思想、商業創新的中心，有時也是孕育政治的搖籃。總的來說，歐洲相互關聯的咖啡館網路形成了啟蒙運動時期的互聯網路。The great sobererCoffee, the drink that fuelled this network, originated in the highlands of Ethiopia, where its beans were originally chewed rather than infused for their invigorating effects. It spread into the Islamic world during the 15th century, where it was embraced as an alternative to alcohol, which was forbidden (officially, at least) to Muslims. Coffee came to be regarded as the very antithesis of alcoholic drinks, sobering rather than intoxicating, stimulating mental activity and heightening perception rather than dulling the senses.偉大的清醒者作為這一網路中的燃料，咖啡是一種起源與衣索比亞的飲品。咖啡豆因其提神醒腦的作用而使用，其食用方法最開始是咀嚼而非研磨沖泡。咖啡在15世紀傳入穆斯林世界，穆斯林將咖啡視為另一種酒，因此被（至少是官方）嚴禁食用。咖啡慢慢被人認為是與酒類不同的飲料，使人清醒而非沉醉，刺激大腦活動，提高理解能力，而非減緩反應速度。This reputation accompanied coffee as it spread into western Europe during the 17th century, at first as a medicine, and then as a social drink in the Arab tradition. An anonymous poem published in London in 1674 denounced wine as the 「sweet Poison of the Treacherous Grape」 that drowns 「our Reason and our Souls」. Beer was condemned as 「Foggy Ale」 that 「besieg"d our Brains」. Coffee, however, was heralded as...that Grave and Wholesome Liquor,that heals the Stomach, makes the Genius quicker,Relieves the Memory, revives the Sad,and cheers the Spirits, without making Mad.帶著這樣的名聲，咖啡在17世紀傳入歐洲，最開始被視為一種藥物，後來成為阿拉伯的傳統交際飲品。1674年發表的一首無名詩中，公開譴責酒是一種「背叛的葡萄藤的甜蜜毒藥」，這種「毒藥」會把「理智和靈魂」淹沒。啤酒被貶為「起霧的愛爾蘭酒」，它會「圍困我們的大腦」。然而，咖啡被譽為這偉大又神奇的液體/醫治胃痛，加速思維運轉/解除痛苦，緩解抑鬱/使靈魂愉悅，卻不至瘋狂The contrast between coffee and alcoholic drinks was reflected in the decor of the coffee-houses that began to appear in European cities, London in particular. They were adorned with bookshelves, mirrors, gilt-framed pictures and good furniture, in contrast to the rowdiness, gloom and squalor of taverns. According to custom, social differences were left at the coffee-house door, the practice of drinking healths was banned, and anyone who started a quarrel had to atone for it by buying an order of coffee for all present. In short, coffee-houses were calm, sober and well-ordered establishments that promoted polite conversation and discussion.歐洲城市興起的咖啡廳，尤其是在倫敦，其內部裝飾反映出咖啡和酒類飲料的對立。相比於酒館的擁擠、昏暗和骯髒，書架、鏡子、鑲著金邊的畫作，以及優良的傢具為咖啡廳增色不少。根據習慣，咖啡廳內並沒有文化差異，相互敬酒的行為被摒棄，任何在咖啡廳吵架的人要為在場的所有人買一杯咖啡賠罪。簡言之，咖啡廳是鎮靜、清醒、有序的場所，這裡推崇文明的交流和討論。With a new rationalism abroad in the spheres of both philosophy and commerce, coffee was the ideal drink. Its popularity owed much to the growing middle class of information workers—clerks, merchants and businessmen—who did mental work in offices rather than performing physical labour in the open, and found that coffee sharpened their mental faculties. Such men were not rich enough to entertain lavishly at home, but could afford to spend a few pence a day on coffee. Coffee-houses provided a forum for education, debate and self-improvement. They were nicknamed 「penny universities」 in a contemporary English verse which observed: 「So great a Universitie, I think there ne"er was any; In which you may a Scholar be, for spending of a Penny.」在國外哲學和商業的理性主義的氛圍中，咖啡是一種理想的飲品。她的流行主要歸功於日益壯大的中產階級中的經常與信息打交道的職員，包括文員、進出口批發商，還有生意人——在辦公室做著腦力工作，而非在室外從事體力勞動，並發現咖啡能夠使其思維敏銳。一些人還沒有富裕到在家中享受奢華的生活，但是卻足夠每天花上幾便士買唄咖啡消遣。咖啡館提供了一個教育，爭論和自我提高的公眾論壇。他們將咖啡館昵稱為「便士大學」，在那時的英語中是這樣解釋的：如此偉大的一所大學/我覺得從未有過/在這裡你可以成為學者/只要你花上一個便士「At the Café de Foy someone said that the king had taken a mistress...that she was a beautiful woman, the niece of the Duc de Noailles,」 reads one report from the 1720s據18世紀20年代的一個報道說，「在福伊咖啡館，有人說國王找了一個新的情人，那是個漂亮女人，還是諾愛勒斯公爵的侄女。」As with modern websites, the coffee-houses you went to depended on your interests, for each coffee-house attracted a particular clientele, usually by virtue of its location. Though coffee-houses were also popular in Paris, Venice and Amsterdam, this characteristic was particularly notable in London, where 82 coffee-houses had been set up by 1663, and more than 500 by 1700. Coffee-houses around the Royal Exchange were frequented by businessmen; those around St James"s and Westminster by politicians; those near St Paul"s Cathedral by clergymen and theologians. Indeed, so closely were some coffee-houses associated with particular topics that the Tatler, a London newspaper founded in 1709, used the names of coffee-houses as subject headings for its articles. Its first issue declared:就像現在的網路一樣，你去那家咖啡館取決於你的興趣和愛好，因為每個咖啡館都會吸引特定的顧客群，通常是由位置決定的。儘管咖啡館在巴黎、威尼斯、阿姆斯特丹都很流行，但是倫敦的咖啡館最為著名。1963年倫敦建立了82家咖啡館，到1700年就達到500家。在黃家商品交易中心周圍的咖啡館充斥著商人，光顧聖詹姆斯公園和威斯敏斯特特附近的咖啡館的客人常是政客，而聖保羅大教堂附近的咖啡館的客人常是牧師和神學家。咖啡館與特定話題的關係是如此密切，1709年創辦的《閑談者》城市與咖啡館的名字作為專欄的題目，在它第一版中這樣說道：All accounts of Gallantry, Pleasure, and Entertainment shall be under the Article of White"s Chocolate-house; Poetry, under that of Will"s Coffee-house; Learning, under...Grecian; Foreign and Domestick News, you will have from St James"s Coffee-house.所有關於風流韻事、娛樂消遣的文章都會在白巧克力咖啡館一欄，詩歌會在威爾咖啡館一欄，學習會在希臘咖啡館一欄，而在聖詹姆斯咖啡館一欄中你能找到國內和國際消息。Richard Steele, the Tatler"s editor, gave its postal address as the Grecian coffee-house, which he used as his office. In the days before street numbering or regular postal services, it became a common practice to use a coffee-house as a mailing address. Regulars could pop in once or twice a day, hear the latest news, and check to see if any post awaited them. That said, most people frequented several coffee-houses, the choice of which reflected their range of interests. A merchant, for example, would generally oscillate between a financial coffee-house and one specialising in Baltic, West Indian or East Indian shipping. The wide-ranging interests of Robert Hooke, a scientist and polymath, were reflected in his visits to around 60 coffee-houses during the 1670s.《閑談者》的編輯理查德?斯迪爾使用希臘咖啡館的郵編，因為他把那個咖啡廳當作自己的辦公室。在街道用門牌號標識或者正式的郵政服務出現之前，用咖啡館的郵編作為郵寄地址是普遍的現象。咖啡廳的常客可能一天會出現一到兩次，聽聽新鮮的新聞，檢查是否有待收的郵件。這就是說，大多數人會常去好幾家咖啡廳，他們的選擇反映出他們的喜好。例如，一個買賣人可能會在兩種咖啡廳之間來回走動，一類是談論金融的咖啡廳，另一類就是談論在波羅的海、西印度和東印度船運的咖啡廳。17世紀70年代，科學家和博學家羅伯特?胡克的光顧60多家咖啡館，這反映出他廣泛的興趣和愛好。As the Tatler"s categorisation suggests, the coffee-house most closely associated with science was the Grecian, the preferred coffee-house of the members of the Royal Society, Britain"s pioneering scientific institution. On one occasion a group of scientists including Isaac Newton and Edmund Halley dissected a dolphin on the premises. Scientific lectures and experiments also took place in coffee-houses, such as the Marine, near St Paul"s, which were frequented by sailors and navigators. Seamen and merchants realised that science could contribute to improvements in navigation, and hence to commercial success, whereas the scientists were keen to show the practical value of their work. It was in coffee-houses that commerce and new technology first became intertwined.就像《閑談者》的分類建議，大多數的希臘咖啡館與科學有著緊密的聯繫，這些咖啡館受到皇家學會和英國先進的科學組織成員的青睞。曾經，在這樣的前提下，包括牛頓和哈雷的一群科學家解剖了一隻海豚。科學講座和實驗也會在咖啡館進行，例如在聖保羅附近的海洋咖啡館，這裡是水手和航海家經常光顧的地方。船員和商人意識到科學對航海的推動作用，繼而可以獲得商業成功，因此科學家致力於展示其研究工作的實際價值。就是在咖啡館裡，商業和科技第一次緊密的交織在一起。The more literary-minded, meanwhile, congregated at Will"s coffee-house in Covent Garden, where for three decades the poet John Dryden and his circle reviewed and discussed the latest poems and plays. Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary on December 3rd 1663 that he had looked in at Will"s and seen Dryden and 「all the wits of the town」 engaged in 「very witty and pleasant discourse」. After Dryden"s death many of the literatured shifted to Button"s, which was frequented by Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, among others. Pope"s poem 「The Rape of the Lock」 was based on coffee-house gossip, and discussions in coffee-houses inspired a new, more colloquial and less ponderous prose style, conversational in tone and clearly visible in the journalism of the day.與此同時，更多的文學思想集中在考文特花園的威爾咖啡館中，三十年來，約翰?德萊頓和他的小圈子在這裡評論探討最新的詩歌和戲劇。薩繆爾?佩皮斯在1663年12月3日的日記中記錄道，他在威爾咖啡掛見到德萊頓和「所有鎮里的智慧的人」正在進行「充滿智慧的討論且氣氛愉悅」。德萊頓逝世之後，許多文學家就轉移到了紐扣咖啡館，這裡是蒲柏，喬納森?斯威夫特還有另外一些文學家經常光顧此地。蒲柏的詩作《捲髮遇劫記》就是在咖啡館的八卦傳言的基礎上創作的，在咖啡館的討論激發了新穎，口語化，不呆板的詩歌形式，以及交談式口吻及清晰明了的雜誌形式。It was in coffee-houses that commerce and new technology first became intertwined就是在咖啡館裡，商業和新技術第一次開始融合Other coffee-houses were hotbeds of financial innovation and experimentation, producing new business models in the form of innumerable novel variations on insurance, lottery or joint-stock schemes. The best-known example was the coffee-house opened in the late 1680s by Edward Lloyd. It became a meeting-place for ships" captains, shipowners and merchants, who went to hear the latest maritime news and to attend auctions of ships and their cargoes. Lloyd began to collect and summarise this information, supplemented with reports from a network of foreign correspondents, in the form of a regular newsletter, at first handwritten and later printed and sent to subscribers. Lloyd"s thus became the natural meeting place for shipowners and the underwriters who insured their ships. Some underwriters began to rent booths at Lloyd"s, and in 1771 a group of 79 of them collectively established the Society of Lloyd"s, better known as Lloyd"s of London.一些咖啡館是金融創新和試驗的溫床，這一孕育了新型的商業模式，包括無數新型的保險、彩票和股份組織形式。最有名的例子是在17世紀80年代末，由愛德華?勞埃德開辦的咖啡館。這裡成為船長，船主和商人的聚會場所，他們來這裡聽聽最新的海事消息，參加船隻及貨物拍賣。勞埃德開始收集總結這些信息，以國外的通訊消息作為補充，並且以時事通訊的形式有規律的發布，首版採用手寫，再版均採用印刷形式發往各個訂閱者。因此勞埃德咖啡館自然地成為船主和為船隻保險的保險人的會面場所。一些保險人開始租用勞埃德咖啡館的站台，1771，其中的79個人聯合組成了勞埃德學會，被稱為倫敦勞埃德保險社。Similarly, two coffee-houses near London"s Royal Exchange, Jonathan"s and Garraway"s, were frequented by stockbrokers and jobbers. Attempts to regulate the membership of Jonathan"s, by charging an annual subscription and barring non-members, were successfully blocked by traders who opposed such exclusivity. So in 1773 a group of traders from Jonathan"s broke away and decamped to a new building, the forerunner of the London Stock Exchange. Garraway"s was a less reputable coffee-house, home to auctions of all kinds and much dodgy dealing, particularly during the South Sea Bubble of 1719-21. It was said of Garraway"s that no other establishment 「fostered so great a quantity of dishonoured paper」.同樣地，兩家倫敦皇家交易所的咖啡館——喬納森咖啡館和加洛偉咖啡館是股票經紀人和批發商經常光顧的地方。有人為了管理喬納森的會員，向會員收取年費並限制非會員入內，此種做法被反對排外思想的貿易者成功抵制。因此，1773年，一群貿易商脫離了喬納森咖啡館，撤到一座新的地點，他們就是倫敦股票交易所的先驅。加洛偉咖啡館的聲譽並不怎麼好，特別是1719 - 1921年間的南海騙局事件期間，它是所有拍賣以及狡詐交易的家園。據說，沒有任何一個公司能比加洛偉咖啡館中籤訂的無良合約再多了。Far more controversial than the coffee-houses" functions as centres of scientific, literary and business exchange, however, was their potential as centres of political dissent. Coffee"s reputation as a seditious beverage goes back at least as far as 1511, the date of the first known attempt to ban the consumption of coffee, in Mecca. Thereafter, many attempts were made to prohibit coffee and coffee-houses in the Muslim world. Some claimed it was intoxicating and therefore subject to the same religious prohibition as alcohol. Others claimed it was harmful to the health. But the real problem was the coffee-houses" alarming potential for facilitating political discussion and activity.最具爭議的不是咖啡館作為科學、文學和商業交換中心的功能，而是咖啡館有成為政治反對派聚集的中心。咖啡作為一種有煽動情緒功能的飲料，其名聲可以追溯到1511年，那是麥加第一次公開嘗試禁止咖啡的時間。此後，銷售穆斯林世界做過許多嘗試去禁止咖啡和咖啡館的存在。一些人認為咖啡使人沉醉，因此應該想宗教禁酒一樣禁止食用咖啡。另一些人則認為咖啡對身體健康有害。但是真實的問題是咖啡館對促進政治討論和活動的潛在警示性。This was the objection raised in a proclamation by Charles II of England in 1675. Coffee-houses, it declared, had producedvery evil and dangerous effects...for that in such Houses...divers False, Malitious and Scandalous Reports are devised and spread abroad, to the Defamation of His Majestie"s Government, and to the Disturbance of the Peace and Quiet of the Realm.以下是1675年英國國王查爾斯二世發布的一篇反對咖啡的公告。公告說：咖啡館製造了「邪惡和危險的影響，因為這樣的環境更容易滋生錯誤、惡意、謠言性質的報道，並傳播到國外，對國家政府進行誹謗，破壞國家的和平和穩定」The result was a public outcry, for coffee-houses had become central to commercial and political life. When it became clear that the proclamation would be widely ignored and the government"s authority thus undermined, a further proclamation was issued, announcing that coffee-sellers would be allowed to stay in business for six months if they paid ￡500 and agreed to swear an oath of allegiance. But the fee and time limit were soon dropped in favour of vague demands that coffee-houses should refuse entry to spies and mischief-makers.這一公告導致了公眾的強烈抗議，因為咖啡館已經成為商業和政治生活的中心。就在這份公告明顯被公眾忽視，政府的權威也隨之削弱的時候，政府又發表了一份公告，聲明如咖啡售賣者繳納500英鎊並同意宣誓效忠，政府允許其從事為期六個月的咖啡售賣生意。這模糊不清公告令使得對繳費和營業時間的限制得以撤銷，該公告就是咖啡館應該拒絕間諜和挑撥離間人入內。Dark rumours of plots and counter-plots swirled in London"s coffee-houses, but they were also centres of informed political debate. Swift remarked that he was 「not yet convinced that any Access to men in Power gives a man more Truth or Light than the Politicks of a Coffee House.」 Miles"s coffee-house was the meeting-place of a discussion group, founded in 1659 and known as the Amateur Parliament. Pepys observed that its debates were 「the most ingeniose, and smart, that I ever heard, or expect to heare, and bandied with great eagernesse; the arguments in the Parliament howse were but flatte to it.」 After debates, he noted, the group would hold a vote using a 「wooden oracle」, or ballot-box—a novelty at the time.造謠和闢謠交織起倫敦咖啡館的生活，但是這同時是非正式政治論壇的中心斯威夫特這樣評論：他「還不相信有任何渠道能比咖啡館更加真實輕鬆的談論政治」。1659年建立的米爾斯咖啡館是討論的集會地，被譽為業餘議會。佩皮斯注意到，討論「大多是新穎，機智的，就我所聽到的而言，或者是我想聽到的內容，都是偉大思想的交換；議會中的論點也只是奉承這裡的觀點而已」。討論之後，他指出，成員應該使用「木質的文書」或者選票箱進行投票，這一想法在那時還是很新奇的。Sweet smell of sedition甜蜜的誘惑The contrast with France was striking. One French visitor to London, the Abbé Prévost, declared that coffee-houses, 「where you have the right to read all the papers for and against the government」, were the 「seats of English liberty」. Coffee-houses were popular in Paris, where 380 had been established by 1720. As in London, they were associated with particular topics or lines of business. But with strict curbs on press freedom and a bureaucratic system of state censorship, France had far fewer sources of news than did England, Holland or Germany. This led to the emergence of handwritten newsletters of Paris gossip, transcribed by dozens of copyists and sent by post to subscribers in Paris and beyond. The lack of a free press also meant that poems and songs passed around on scraps of paper, along with coffee-house gossip, were important sources of news for many Parisians.倫敦與法國的差別十分顯著。一位法國游者普雷沃神父來到倫敦，他公開說道：「在哪兒你都有閱讀反對政府的報紙，這就是英國的自由所在。」咖啡館在巴黎也很流行，1720年共建立了380家咖啡館。就像在倫敦一樣，巴黎的咖啡館與特定的話題或生意有著密切聯繫。但是由於對出版自由的控制和國家審查機構的官僚主義作風，相對與英國，荷蘭和德國，法國的資源要少的多。這種情況導致了巴黎小道消息都採用手書的形式。由數名抄錄人員抄寫之後分發給巴黎和其他地方的訂閱者。Little wonder then that coffee-houses, like other public places in Paris, were stuffed with government spies. Anyone who spoke out against the state risked being hauled off to the Bastille, whose archives contain reports of hundreds of coffee-house conversations, noted down by informers. 「At the Café de Foy someone said that the king had taken a mistress, that she was named Gontaut, and that she was a beautiful woman, the niece of the Duc de Noailles,」 runs one report from the 1720s. Another, from 1749, reads, 「Jean-Louis Le Clerc made the following remarks in the Café de Procope: that there never has been a worse king; that the court and the ministers make the king do shameful things, which utterly disgust his people.」毫無疑問，就像巴黎其他的公共場所，咖啡館裡也充滿著政府的間諜。任何發表反政府言論的人都會冒這被投入巴士底監獄的風險，那些被抓起來的人的檔案中包含在咖啡館中上百份由竊聽人有記載下來的交談記錄。18世紀20年代的一個報道說「在福伊咖啡館，有人說國王找了個名叫貢托的新情人，那是個漂亮女人，還是諾愛勒斯公爵的侄女。」另外一份1749年的報道說「讓路易斯?克萊爾在普羅科普咖啡館做了如下的評論：再也沒有比這再糟的國王了，法院和大臣讓國王做了可恥的事情，人民對此極端反感。「Those 「who assembled day after day in the Café de Procope saw, with penetrating glance, in the depths of their black drink, the illumination of the year of the revolution」那些「第二天在普羅科普咖啡館集會的人用極富洞察力的眼光看到，在黑啤酒之底，反射出那年的改革的光芒。」Despite their reputation as breeding-grounds for discontent, coffee-houses seem to have been tolerated by the French government as a means of keeping track of public opinion. Yet it was at the Café de Foy, eyed by police spies while standing on a table brandishing two pistols, that Camille Desmoulins roused his countrymen with his historic appeal—「Aux armes, citoyens!」—on July 12th 1789. The Bastille fell two days later, and the French revolution had begun. Jules Michelet, a French historian, subsequently noted that those 「who assembled day after day in the Café de Procope saw, with penetrating glance, in the depths of their black drink, the illumination of the year of the revolution.」儘管咖啡館背負著不滿滋生的土壤的惡名，但是法國政府將咖啡館作為追蹤民意的一種手段，因此好像也容忍了咖啡館的存在。但是就在福伊咖啡館，在手拿兩把手槍的站在桌子上的警方間諜的注視下，卡米爾?德穆蘭鼓激勵她的同鄉，在1789年7月12日他發出了具有歷史意義的呼喊——「同胞們，準備戰鬥吧！」 兩天後巴士底獄被攻陷，法國革命開始了。法國歷史學家米西列隨後指出那些「第二天在普羅科普咖啡館集會的人用極富洞察力的眼光看到，在黑啤酒之底，反射出那年的改革的光芒。」Can the coffee-houses" modern equivalent, the internet, claim to have had such an impact? Perhaps not. But the parallels are certainly striking. Originally the province of scientists, the internet has since grown to become a nexus of commercial, journalistic and political interchange.在現代與咖啡對等的網際網路也能形成這樣的影響嗎？或許不能。但是網際網路的作用一樣顯著。最開始互聯網是科學家的地盤，網際網路因此成長壯大並成為連接商業、通訊和政治和結合點。In discussion groups and chatrooms, gossip passes freely—a little too freely, think some regulators and governments, which have tried and generally failed to rein them in. Snippets of political news are rounded up and analysed in weblogs, those modern equivalents of pamphlets and broadsides. Obscure scientific and medical papers, once available only to specialists, are just clicks away; many scientists explain their work, both to their colleagues and to the public at large, on web pages. Countless new companies and business models have emerged, not many of them successful, though one or two have become household names. Online exchanges and auction houses, from eBayto industry-specific marketplaces, match buyers and sellers of components, commodities and household bric-à-brac.在群組和聊天室的環境下，流言蜚語自由傳播——有點太自由了，想像有些監管者和公務員曾試圖控制，但大都失敗了。政治新聞的隻言片語博客中聚攏分析，就像從前的小冊子和公告板。曾經只有專業人士才能讀懂的艱澀的科學和醫藥報告，現在只許輕點滑鼠就可掃除障礙。許多科學家要在網頁上同時向他們的同行和公眾解釋他們的工作。無數的新公司和商業模式湧現出現，儘管有一兩家公司成為家喻戶曉的公司，但是也不是所有的公司都獲得了成功。在線交易、拍賣房屋，從eBay到特殊行業的交易市場，這些公司將零件、商品到家用排設的購買者和銷售者精妙配合在一起。Coffee, meet WiFiThe kinship between coffee-houses and the internet has recently been underlined by the establishment of wireless 「hotspots」 which provide internet access, using a technology called WiFi, in modern-day coffee-shops. T-Mobile, a wireless network operator, has installed hotspots in thousands of Starbucks coffee-shops across America and Europe. Coffee-shop WiFi is particularly popular in Seattle—home to both Starbucks and such leading internet firms as Amazon and Microsoft.Such hotspots allow laptop-toting customers to check their e-mail and read the news as they sip their lattes. But history provides a cautionary tale for those hotspot operators that charge for access. Coffee-houses used to charge for coffee, but gave away access to reading materials. Many coffee-shops are now following the same model, which could undermine the prospects for fee-based hotspots. Information, both in the 17th century and today, wants to be free—and coffee-drinking customers, it seems, expect it to be.當咖啡遇到無線區域網最近，在現代的咖啡商店建立無線「熱點」突出了咖啡廳和網際網路的親近關係。無線熱點是指通過wifi技術提供無線網路接入。無線網路運營商德國電信公司已經在美國和歐洲的數千家星巴克咖啡商店安裝了熱點。帶有wifi的咖啡商店在西雅圖十分流行，這裡是星巴克以及像亞馬遜和微軟這樣的互聯網公司的總部。這種熱點可以允許筆記本電腦的使用者在喝咖啡的時候查收郵件、閱讀新聞。但是歷史為提供收費網路接入的運營商講述了一個具有勸誡意義的故事。咖啡廳只對咖啡收費，卻提供免費的閱讀材料。許多咖啡廳都效仿這一模式，這逐漸破壞了基於收費的熱點網路接入的前景。無論實在17世紀還是今天，信息應該自由獲取——喝咖啡的人看來也有這樣的期望。
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