Today, we are in the middle of the Information Revolution. "Middle" may not be accurate; we don't yet know where this will all end up. The rise of interactive AI is pretty new, for instance, and we still aren't sure what the ultimate impact of this technology will be, although I would point out that AI cannot create; it can only reblend and rehash what it has already been exposed to. Great cultural revolution span generations, though, and my grandchildren, when they are my age, may be telling their grandchildren, "You know, back in the day, we didn't have corneal implants with built-in heads-up displays, we had to use our phones or sit at a computer."

Now, today, the internet and social media in particular can make and break careers. Could it also make and break nations?

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The gist of all this, though, is that the flow of information in this new revolution will only expand. The question is, what information? Here's the thing: The free flow of information, ranging from political commentary to cute cat videos, is threatening to tyrants and totalitarian regimes. They can't allow it; that is why, in places like North Korea, the stunted little gargoyle with bad hair who runs that country may well be the only one with internet access. But it seems North Korea, that isolated little Stalinist regime that is for some reason ruled by a hereditary monarchy, is one of the few holdouts to this influx of information.

Iran, on the other hand, has had much less luck. There already was one attempt to throw off the dictatorship of the mullahs, which America (under Barack Obama) refused to support. The Islamic Republic has a restive younger generation that is growing increasingly tech-savvy - and they are starting to push back.

The signal - the information - is only available to people that know it's there. That's why North Korea has succeeded, so far, in keeping its citizens ignorant, while Iran has not. And it is the Islamic world that may be changed the most by the information revolution. Why? Because there is a parallel in history.

For centuries, the Bible was only printed in Latin. In Europe, this gave the Catholic Church an effective monopoly on the interpretation of the Scriptures, as most people couldn't read the Bible for themselves. Enter a German priest named Martin Luther, who translated the Old Testament into German, which led to other translations into other languages, including eventually the English King James bible that remains in wide use today. This, along with the rise of the printing press, allowed the general run of the population to read and interpret the Bible for themselves, not having to rely on a priest to do so.

In other words, the public suddenly had a valuable new source of information that they could read and interpret themselves.

Could there be a Muslim Martin Luther out there? The trajectory of the Islamic world has been in the opposite direction in the last few decades: more dictatorial, more repressive, more intolerant of dissent. Could the spread, worldwide, of information, change that? Could the rise of the internet and social media allow more people to see the rest of the world, to see how other people live, and to show residents of places like Iran that what the mullahs tell them isn't necessarily true?

It's possible. But it's not something that will happen overnight. This is the work of generations.

See Related: Is Nothing Sacred? Islamist Attacks in Germany Prompt Heightened Security for Oktoberfest.

Bear in mind, the mullahs will fight any such effort, any such trend, every step of the way.

I can only hold out some hope. The way to counter bad information is with good information, but it takes a certain amount of intelligence and dedication to seek out the difference. The rise of the Information Revolution, even social media, will continue to change our world. We can only hope those changes are for the better but change there will be. 

You can't stop the signal.