For how long do you think the Internet will last?

Well, for how long do you think the Internet will last?



Unless the White House [ or government ] wanted to shut it down for the purposes of control, it would be sooner, don't you think?

[edit on 23-11-2007 by TheoOne]

reply to post by TheoOne


They won't be able to shut it down completely. They can make it tougher and slower to access websites by shutting down the Domain Name Servers, but those with the technical know-how can just create a new DNS server to redirect traffic. Alternatively, direct IP connections are possible.

There's also the fact that a lot of trade happens on the Internet today. Disrupting that will cause more trouble than the control is worth. People really don't like it when their source of income is messed with. Which is also why control via ISP is not probable either. They are businesses. Your government puts businesses first (as do most governments).

Originally posted by TheoOne
Well, for how long do you think the Internet will last?

take a look at internet in China...

one would suppose they their gov't would not allow it to get rooted
if it was such a disruptive force of social control.

so, i conclude that the USA, and the rest of the world, have no notion
of disabling the internet, as it is too valuable a tool for exploitation.


One might probably think that some of the blogspheres might be
disrupted or even shut down, because of inciting violence against the
state or even some spin of being traitorous ala' the Patriot Act(s)


just the fear & intimidation of 'cyber police', as there is China internet,
with 'police' icons popping up on any website that is disfavored by
the authorities....
these may soon be here on the western-world-web
as a tactic of control and guiding public opinion, along with data mining
the 'persons of interest' who frequent the govt's list of 'bad' or
disruptive sites...



[edit on 23-11-2007 by St Udio]

It'll never be shut down- too many agencies (and by that I mean police, hospitals, et al) depend on it nowadays. I use it every day in my job in the USAF- I came in just as it was coming up on the world and I think back and say "How did we ever do X without it!?" Not to mention all the hospitals linked up to share ideas/treatments etc. Crime labs able to get their CSI on, even students have a greater resource at their hands than has ever been seen.

My kid asked me the other day what we did when we didn't have the internets... "We read books".


...And watched Knight Rider.

Too much commerce relies on it now to just shut it down but controlled access to sites is still a definite possibility with heavy penalties for visiting sites considered subversive or supporting illegal activity.

I feel threatened with getting my life back and actually doing things again instead of just talking about it

Internet isn't exclusive to US. If something were to happen though I bet the geeks of the world would keep it up and running like they did in the early days before the big ISP's came along.

Originally posted by TheoOne
Well, for how long do you think the Internet will last?

Unless the White House [ or government ] wanted to shut it down for the purposes of control, it would be sooner, don't you think?

[edit on 23-11-2007 by TheoOne]

I guess for as long as there will be no WW3.

Six More Days

Long Gone

Culturally, we are accustomed to thinking of the Internet in terms of spatial metaphors. We vistit "web pages" by clicking on "desktop icons" and navigate "from one site to another."

I think as more devices become connected to the Internet, and networked functionality becomes more pervasive, these spatial metaphors will change.

Before long, the Internet will cease to be regarded as an individual "thing" or as a novel "service" with an identity distinct from the devices that connect to it.

reply to post by TheoOne

I thought you're talking about the internet bandwith capacity.

Well, the internet 2 could be heavily regulated (even more than internet 1). If they want to regulate the internet, I guess it will be when the internet 2 become mainstream.

The communist party is very successful in regulating the use of the internet in China. Allegedly, the very expert of the internet itself, Cisco, is the one who do the helping.

The internet itself currently is not as robust as you might think. You still require ISP to connect to internet. It means it still requires nodes to connect. Nodes that the government like the Chinese government can control.

The internet will exist for as long as "they" want it to. A few months ago there was talking of internet regulation, and it didn't go well. I note that has gone quiet again.

The internet is too important to "them" to give up easily:

* It allows easy monitoring of anyone who uses it
* They can determine who you talk to
* By watching your habits they can build a profile
etc..

so in that respect its loss would be a problem.

If it was to become a major threat however (e.g. the way freedom of speech over the internet is in China), then it will become heavily restricted. China only allows it to continue as they control virtually everything on it, and can use it to spread their propaganda. If it wasn't for that, they'd shut it down completely.

US Control of Internet Remains Issue
ap.google.com...

As the conference drew to a close, Russian representative Konstantin Novoderejhkin called on the United Nations secretary-general to create a working group to develop "practical steps" for moving Internet governance "under the control of the international community."

"The Russian proposal seeks to exponentially increase government interference in the ICANN process, introducing a dangerous and destabilizing force into a global Internet addressing system that has been a paragon of stability under the current oversight structure," said Steve DelBianco, executive director of NetChoice, a coalition of high-tech leaders like Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, eBay Inc. and Yahoo Inc.

Yeah, the internet isn't going anywhere.

First and foremost, the internet is self sustaining. It isn't centralized. When you send an email, it is sent through the internet in packets. These packets take different routes to their destinations. If the road is closed, that packet takes a different route.

ECommerce is the future of business. It makes global business so much easier, and we'll never go back to brick and mortar stores. Eventually, i see many large retail locations like Target, Wal-Mart, etc turning purely online. Just turn their stores into warehouse locations and ship out from there.

Moreover, the internet is what has made a globalized society inevitable. Communicaton and commerce are so much easier with the advent of the internet, and things get done much faster.

So yeah, the internet is here to stay.

I don't get your question....do you mean the end of the IPV6 protoco?l or the end of sharing knowledge beetween one lifeform to another?

the internet is managed by a private company in the US with steps taken to ensure minimal government interference. but with the inevitability of the north American union, things could change drastically. It will still exist, but perhaps not with the net neutrality and freedom of information we have today.