Futures, Vol. 30, No. 2/3, pp. 147–160, 1998 Pergamon  1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 0016–3287/98 $19.00 + 0.00 PII: S0016–3287(98)00022-6 ENVISIONING NEW—BUYING USED Are the Pacific Islands caught between alternative communication futures? Michael R Ogden With the ‘complexification’ of today’s society, due in large measure to rapid technological convergence in the fields of communications and informatics, developing Pacific island countries are faced with what at the surface appears to be a devil’s choice: jump on the high-tech bandwagon and risk being sub- sumed by the Western-dominated ‘cyberculture’, or withdraw from the tech- nology-induced developments evidenced in richer countries and thereby run the risk of falling even further behind. This dichotomy is, of course, false and paints a rather nihilistic picture of Pacific islands futures. The contention here is that such a polemic is selling the Pacific islands a ‘used future’. Therefore, it is vitally important, at this juncture, for Pacific island leaders, entrepreneurs and citizens to recognize that creative, long-term future strategies for planning and optimizing the application and use of high-tech communications in econ- omically advantageous and culturally appropriate ways are desperately needed.  1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved It is not just the computer and its impacts on telecommunications alone with which we are con- cerned here but with the convergence and interaction... the ways in which they combine together to create a radically new information and communications environment. John and Magda McHale Michael Ogden is Assistant Professor at The Department of Communication, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2560 Campus Road, George #336, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA (Tel: + 808 956-3341; fax: + 808 956-5591; email: ogden@hawaii.edu). 147