Re:Internet traffic impacted in Palestine after attacks. Som...
by darigo on Saturday October 07, 2023 @09:35PM
(#37807088)
I've long pondered what would happen if the internet were attacked at a more conceptual level. Ie, not downtime, but the loss of interconnectedness itself.
Like, if the sea cables, and transnational connections, the universal protocols, were to all slowly decay. Not necessarily in some epic moment of war, but even a degeneration over time, like Medieval moss and vines consuming the roads that once all led to Rome.
The embryo of this future already exists (eg RuNet among others). I imagine different regions and communities selectively interlinking, forming complex alliances and networks. Kinda like feudalism. A mushy goo, like the medieval state, totally disconnected from both national and global ideas of what the state is.
Perhaps some networks would maintain a national character (like North Korea). Others would claim de jure a universality which they de facto lack (surely NATO falls in this camp, much like how the Holy Roman Empire imagined itself as the universal government to complement the universality of its historically Catholic faith).
Of course, us open source loving HN types dream of universal protocols where WhatsApp, Facebook, etc, all interoperate without a central managing authority, and users have sovereignty over the data, etc etc. But what if the real future is the opposite, that the intranets break off from the internet, and themselves become different silos, unwilling and increasingly incapable of talking to eachother.
As an Urbit user, Urbit looks like an attempt to preempt this possible future, and make the best of a feudal digital future. Considering who created Urbit, maybe Urbit is even enthusiastically looking forward to this future, preparing us in advance for a kind of computation that will thrive when they day of the king comes.
Btw hmu on Urbit ~motluc-nammex if any other Martians are on here <3 I run into us everywhere these days.
Like, if the sea cables, and transnational connections, the universal protocols, were to all slowly decay. Not necessarily in some epic moment of war, but even a degeneration over time, like Medieval moss and vines consuming the roads that once all led to Rome.
The embryo of this future already exists (eg RuNet among others). I imagine different regions and communities selectively interlinking, forming complex alliances and networks. Kinda like feudalism. A mushy goo, like the medieval state, totally disconnected from both national and global ideas of what the state is.
Perhaps some networks would maintain a national character (like North Korea). Others would claim de jure a universality which they de facto lack (surely NATO falls in this camp, much like how the Holy Roman Empire imagined itself as the universal government to complement the universality of its historically Catholic faith).
Of course, us open source loving HN types dream of universal protocols where WhatsApp, Facebook, etc, all interoperate without a central managing authority, and users have sovereignty over the data, etc etc. But what if the real future is the opposite, that the intranets break off from the internet, and themselves become different silos, unwilling and increasingly incapable of talking to eachother.
As an Urbit user, Urbit looks like an attempt to preempt this possible future, and make the best of a feudal digital future. Considering who created Urbit, maybe Urbit is even enthusiastically looking forward to this future, preparing us in advance for a kind of computation that will thrive when they day of the king comes.
Btw hmu on Urbit ~motluc-nammex if any other Martians are on here <3 I run into us everywhere these days.