Do y'all think we will always have the internet? I got into a discussion last night with my husband about this subject. I asked if we would always have the internet. He said he thinks we will but it won't necessarily be the way that it is now, but we would still be able to write email and various other things like downloading music.

What do you think?

This probably isn't what your looking for, but earlier on in the presidential campaigns one of them mentioned taxing the internet, I believe it was Obama, but that is besides the point. Me and my parents have thought for years they were going to start taxing it, were still waiting, but I think itwill come soon. I hope not.

Well if the internet were only for sending emails and downloading pirated music files...well it isnt much of a needy thing to have around IMO.

I can write a letter and send it in the mail.

I can go to the music store and buy a CD or album.

I think people need to start depending on life itself more than depending on internet. If you dont, well what will you be capable of and would you be able to live without it?

Most likely...not.

There is a world out there byond the house and pc screen. Discover it, live it, love it. That way when the internet goes POOF...you wont go POOF with it.

Thus...life goes on!

And there was a time not so long ago and not so far away, that there was no internet and life moved along quite nicely. It can do so again without it.



Cheers!!!!

We'll all be using the 'Grid' in the near future instead of the internet.

I don't think the internet is going anywhere. It might evolve and change in many drastic ways (maybe even get a new name?), but it'll be around in some form. It's too important to the world now. It's not just going to be taken down.

[edit on 3-12-2008 by GrayFox]

The internet could quite easily be our savior or our demise. The internet gives common people the opportunity to expand their horizons, increase their knowledge and explore their every curiosities. The process of obtaining information has changed since the birth of the Internet as we began to know it in the 90's, and it could potentially become much more difficult for the powers that be to keep information from the public. You're already seeing the forced transparency in the presidential campaign, you're seeing the forced transparency in our celebrities, in everything. The internet is filled with many false and stupid things but the fact remains that it is the single best source of information and broad, mass communication at very little expense.

Of course, it's not unthinkable that the internet could become as compromised as, say... religion, the government, banking and the media. Worst case scenario, you've got RFID chips in every citizen so "they" know where we are at all times and what we're doing. If these powers were to get control of the internet, this last bastion of hope for the common man, then they'd also have the power to know what we're thinking, and what we desire.

Sadly, I think it's unavoidable. It's a huge risk to undertake, but the reward far outweighs the risk for me.

I thing the internet probably will not remain as we know it now forever, but I don't see it going away entirely. It's a very useful tool for many purposes, though a majority of the traffic volume is done through bittorrent these days.

It'll probably be around for a good while.

If you consider this the "information age", and can realize that all ages come to an end, then it follows that the information age, along with the Internet itself, will one day cease to exist, or change drastically.

There is no way the internet can go down compleatly

Every commercial wind turbines in the US is run through a internet connection.

Half the windturbines in Tehachapi calif are run from a control room in Florida and operated by florida Power & Light.
This is done by internet.
The maintenance crew in Tehachapi can go into any wind turbine tower and connect to any wind turbine there company owns in the country to see if its working right and what maintenance is needed.
they need a part they can order it right there without going back to there shop.

one thing that is real interesting is most wind turbines have a weather station on them.
and most companies let the national weather service use this realtime date just by logging on.

Yes we will always have it but we will have better things too.
In 100 years from now the internet we have now will seem pointless and useless.
People are already setting up there own wireless networks.
Its only satellites being so expensive that cripples global wireless internet.
I think eventually you wont even need satellites.

The internet as we know it today will be a thing of the past.

Internet 2 is in development complete with censors and spybots.

You access the internet though your ISP and your ISP will do as its told by the federal government.

It is possible that the PTB do not want ideas floating around unchecked so will phase in mandatory Internet 2.

Don't worry, it will be hailed as "Faster, more efficient, and safer."

Internet 2 project is real, I just hope it doesn't come to fruition.

from an IT guy: everything just started. The best is still to come! More and more devices will connect to the internet, and in the end all our lifes will be somehow connected to the Internet. It is all good, as long as we can controll it. And if the gvmt will crash it, we will allways have alternatives - our own Internet

I think a few of you are confusing the WWW, a WAN, with the Internet. The Internet is the content based, human readable "side" of the internet. The WWW (WAN), is the machine readable, purely data based "side".

In actuality, they are not sides, but rather one is the refinement of the other. That is, the Internet is the refinement of the WWW.

The WWW itself will never go away. The argument that computers in Florida control the wind turbines in Tehachapi concerns the WWW, not necessarily the Internet.

The Internet, the human readable "side", will change (privatization, nationwide censorship, etc.), but will never go away either.