2. Information on virtually any subject is available almost any time I wish, be it the middle of the night, while I'm watching TV, or whenever. This change is so significant to me that it's hard to imagine what it was like "before." For the most part this has enabled me to be more politically and socially informed and active, but it's also allowed me to change careers (to MS developer, sorry), take up ham radio, help sell my mother's house without a realtor, build my own computers, etc

And the significance of this shouldn't be underestimated. Weinberger may have his head in the clouds about where things are at right now, but Katz has got it wrong, too. Widespread access to information is an incredibly powerful thing, and once the "average" person possesses a high degree of net-savy and begins to use it constructively, the world really will be dramatically different, it's just happening much more slowly than all the Cyber BS predicted.

Slashdot is a perfect example of access to information improving discourse on a topic. The ability to link directly to the law/interview/filmography/press release in question means the loud bullshitters lose the debate to the meticulous thinkers. Stack up several decades of that happening in a much wider forum, and I think the world will be much better.