Fifty years ago this August, in quiet, cool, Cambridge, Mass., a Mr. L.C.R. Licklider of MIT put pen to paper and, in a memo, recorded a dream. The contents of this memo would one day become computer scientist Licklider’s legacy, and this legacy; our way of life. The little dream that Lick recorded on that night was of an “Intergalactic Computer Network”, a global network of interconnected computers through which anyone could access any information from any one of its sites instantly. Unparalleled amounts information delivered over unprecedented distances: a fantasy.

Now, fifty years later, Lick’s sci-fi ambition has become a breathing reality. Today, in a world neither Licklider nor any of his legacy of visionary colleagues could have ever imagined, The Galactic Network glows and beeps in everyone’s pockets. The news today? The country that bore him and his incredible dream threatens to neuter it. Of course I’m talking about SOPA/PIPA, a set of bills recently introduced to the House and Senate, respectively. Purportedly drafted to defend U.S. job security in industries threatened by internet piracy, the bills would give U.S. law enforcement unheard-of power over Internet Service Providers and the worldwide web in general.

Now, I’m not going to give the opposition’s argument, because  we’ve all heard it before. (“This is censorship and it infringes upon my free speech!”) Nor will I address the support, as it is as ancient a cliché as it is dangerous. (“We’re just going to have to give this liberty up in the interest of what really matters: economic and social stability.”) Instead, I want to look at what this all points at, what might be found under the heaps of political doublespeak.

Capitalism has been working pretty well for us so far. It seems to have clicked with humankind. Something inside of us is drawn hypnotically towards the promise of ownership. Perhaps because its glow betrays a hint of eternity, after which we never cease to pine, our hunger is never sated. Go out, earn, purchase, build, create, leave your mark. Whatever the reason, this hunger has served as mortar in creating the behemoth of social organization and productivity that is capitalism.

Like any good human culture, it’s left a legacy of beautiful and terrifying monuments. It’s fed, housed, defended, robbed and murdered alike, but, man, has it ever created. It’s created and discovered, sent men into the sky and above, split the atom and realized Licklider’s Galactic Network. The internet, communication incarnate, gives us what we ask for quicker each time we ask, and our patience only gets shorter. This is the ultimate itch for the consumption scratch: instant shopping, instant listening, watching and talking. Only now, something unexpected has happened: it’s become too instantaneous so as to make a mockery of the society that craves it so badly. Its sheer span and speed has dated our notion of property and the laws that define it. We’ve inadvertently taught ourselves that to own all is to own nothing.

That men and women provide for themselves by rule of these very laws is no joke, and to undermine them is to undermine a system that constitutes our culture. However, this is only the beginning of the digital age coming at odds with a society defined in an older era (imagine the problems that 3D printers will cause for copyright law). Should our first answer really be to stunt our technology and ingenuity in order to hold our trembling paychecks together with Band-Aids?

Many have spoken out in the form of online protest, because this affects each and every one of us, but the most exciting part is that they’re listening. In response to widespread protests late last January, the House and Senate pushed voting on the bills back until “wider agreement” is achieved. This issue is volatile, it is vibrant and it affects each of us and our modern lifestyle. So don’t sit back and watch; make yourself heard. And if you absolutely must watch, watch carefully, because mixing new culture with old power is a recipe for revolution. The mixture is gentle today, but the feelings are already raw, and I’ve got a feeling you’re not going to want to miss a minute.