Our Technology Future - The Internet, Part Two

Yesterday I discussed certain efforts to proliferate internet access to the 4+ billion people on the planet who lack internet access. I pointed out my view of what utility this would have in some of the areas that it would invariably effect. Today, I will look at the future of the internet – what it looks like, how we will use it.

The question of how we will use the internet to an extent frames what it will look like. It will have to take a specific shape if it is to be useful for certain activities. It also tends to dovetail into another topic I won’t get too much into right now, the fusion of humans with machines.

In the human/machine fusion future some theorize, the role of the internet would essentially be the hub of our brains – of our consciousness. Our minds, our personalities, would not exist primarily in our own bodies, but within the internet. Education would itself be of limited utility as all the world’s information could be pulled up with a single thought.

Another theory posits the seamless blending of reality and virtual reality. The internet would become home to a number of personal “spaces” and public “spaces” where our downloaded conscious move about and interact through our digital avatars. The ease and simplicity of the connection, the realism of the technology, would be so great that one would not immediately know that they are in a computer; something akin to the Matrix or in that Battlestar Galactica prequel series SyFy ran a few years ago.

The most simplistic is one featured in a couple of episodes of the Outer Limits (in the late 90s I believe is when I saw those episodes). Rather than complete immersion like the Matrix, or cyborgs, we would simply have a chip implanted either in our brains or in our eye. The chip itself directly interfaces with the internet to provide whatever information we ask for. So, we wouldn’t be cybrogs exactly, but something a little closer.

The common strain is ready access to information. That was the idea behind the internet, that is the greatest power of the internet, and that would be the focus of the internet well into the future; connecting people to information as quickly as possible.

So, what shape will it take? My guess is something sort of like Futurama, the Matrix, or Sword Art Online – or any number of other science fiction scripts – in which we are able to directly immerse ourselves into the internet as digital avatars. Through this we will be able to travel wherever we want, whenever we want. We would even be able to experience the past or probable futures in fully rendered 3D virtual environments.

But, expect the internet to be more policed than it is today.

Now, obviously that is an egregious thought to many. Anytime there is the mere mention of policing the internet there are tons of people who get up in arms and furious at any idea that approaches that. The internet is held up as a bastion of freedom and truth and justice.

Here is the reality. The internet was created by the military as a means of connecting weapons systems and protecting any single point of failure by means of networking multiple computers. People loved the idea that it could be used to contact others across the world. Thus, the internet of today was born. But with the issue of hackers, crackers, identity thieves, etc., the internet has been like the frontier west of the United States. As it is now you basically navigate at your own risk. If you venture off the beaten path, move away from established safe zones, you’re at the mercy of the denizens of those areas of the web. Even the “safe” zones are only so safe, with some would-be criminals in constant wait to rip of the unsuspecting.

I think we all like the idea that the internet is a free and open place where we can get unfettered access to whatever we need… until it comes up and bites us in the you-know-what and we start wondering why there aren’t better protections against these people, these incidents. As we become more and more involved with the internet, as more and more people get to use the internet, it will have to move from the Wild West phase.

That isn’t a terrible thing if it is done right. We have freedom of the press and freedom of speech, yet there are also safeguards in place that protect our private information from being disseminated in the public sphere. As law stands right now, someone can break into your house and steal your credit cards, they’d be prosecuted for multiple crimes, including the break-in, and possibly face years if not decades in prison. Someone hacks your computer and steals your credit information, they’re likely to only get a slap on the wrist for the hacking, and a little more than that for the identity theft.

If you’re a security programmer, this is good news for your future business. There will likely always be very strong opposition to government heavy-handedness, or the perception thereof. Therefore I foresee the best compromise as something similar to how auto safety is managed. Essentially, there will be a government body that rates and sets certain standards, while leaving it to the industry to develop security measures within that established framework. A regime started in this direction, but it is currently only applicable to financial institutions, and only really assigns some degree of responsibility.

In general there are lots of benefits that proliferation of lightning fast internet. But there are a lot of potential pitfalls as well. Some researchers have already noted that there has been some decline in the inventiveness and ingenuity of newer generations. There has been an increasing reliance on simply looking up anything one doesn’t know. This stymies creative thought and the development of deductive reasoning skills. That means fewer people thinking about the big picture problems out there, or equipped with the necessary mental capacity to do so.

This isn’t a matter of a cliff. We aren’t talking about waking up tomorrow, or even five or ten years from now, and suddenly we can’t find our way out of a paper bag. We are talking about an insidious trend, a small current running through society, that will get little attention, possibly no attention until it does genuinely become a problem. And unfortunately, it isn’t an easy problem to fix. We have this basic assumption that simply having access to information is the same as having knowledge. But that isn’t the case. Knowing that the Pythagorean theorem is used to calculate the length of a side of a triangle is important. You can go on Google, or with a number of apps, to input some numbers and get the third number. What is the incentive for a kid in middle school when you learn this (or high school in some places apparently) to extend their educational attainment or take it seriously, to learn how to manipulate that formula, when they know that all they have to do is put it in an app and get an answer? Little by little that is happening. We need to counteract that some way.

The internet phenomenon is that satisfaction of a desire of instant gratification. We don’t want to think about something, we want to get an answer. That has always been the way humanity operates. Invention is the product of searching for a way to accomplish something with greater speed, safety, and efficiency. In the past we had limited means of getting an answer without putting in the effort ourselves. Now, through the internet many questions get answered right away. That is powerful, uplifting thing which enables some problems to be remedied quickly and effectively. The ability to interact and learn about any and everything is unmatched.

But one has to be wary what is lost in the process. The challenge moving forward will be in balancing the two; providing access to information and encouraging active thought, not just consumption of information. That will be the true measure of the promise of the internet future. 

Alright, that's this week. Tough week fighting a pretty bad cold, but it's about over now. Lots of reading this week. Next week I'll start off with space. It should be a fun topic. Book of the Shadows update comes around 1:30 or 2 EST with the next two chapters of Book II. Finally, have a sample track for the week. It's part of my personal music collection.