A New Era? Probably Not

In spite of Gilles Deleuze's insistance that our society is at a turning point emerging from its days as a disciplinary society to a society of control, I still remain skeptical. It seems to me that for my entire life, humans have been at the forefront of some great era just on the verge of a brand new society. Granted things are changing a lot more quickly than at other times, but are the changes occurring now really the start of some radically new form of society? It's easy to look back and give a name to an era, and it's not so hard to imagine an era of the future either. On the other hand I think it's quite difficult to pinpoint the present into an era, but when historians right the books of the future I doubt there will be some great distinction between now and the next couple years. Though I'll probably end up eating these words, many changes occur more slowly than those looking ahead into the future would predict.
Another interest point I found in the article was how he described corporations having "a soul" as the most terrifying thing. I wasn't exactly sure what was meant by this or why it would be so horrible. While some of the situations of corporate control of everything (realized in Snow Crash) can be quite frightening I think this article does a little more fear-mongering than truly necessary. Predictions of the future tend to take trends a little to far, and underestimate the backlash to certain patterns (like corporate ownership of more aspects of life).