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by pxc6 hours ago |
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upvoteby RiverCrochet3 hours ago|
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Your last paragraph: it is sad. But we had successful global networks before the Internet (the PSTN, telegraph) and we'll certainly have global networks after this at some point in human history. Perhaps in the the time between the Internet and what's next, the world will become a bit more mature about a few things.
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upvoteby Spooky2353 minutes ago|
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Those predecessor networks weren’t problem free. Many conversations to “interesting” places were monitored.

The counter-reaction to this era will include additional communication control.

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upvoteby jazzyjackson1 hours ago|
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this is teleological thinking. it's not necessarily the case that things get better over time.
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upvoteby dingnuts1 hours ago|
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[dead]
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upvoteby mschuster913 hours ago|
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> But we had successful global networks before the Internet (the PSTN, telegraph)

These were ripe with espionage, wiretapping and sabotage. Access to it used to be highly restricted as well, up until the 90s for example you were only allowed to connect government-licensed modems to the German PSTN directly.

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upvoteby RiverCrochet2 hours ago|
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> These were ripe with espionage, wiretapping and sabotage.

Just like today's Internet. BGP spoofing, CALEA, DDoS.

> Access to it used to be highly restricted as well ...

And this is where the regression or "downfall" is beginning. Access to the Internet (as in ability to send/receive arbitrary data to the wider Internet) is something I bet is going to be increasingly restricted, but most people won't notice because they don't understand the difference between apps and the Internet.

I'd be surprised if direct access to the Internet is possible for consumers in the next 10 years. Everything will have to be through approved apps (age assurance is going to be the catalyst) that work over registered tunnels contracted through ISPs, if there isn't an outright blurring or merger between the concepts of phone/CPE, ISP and CDN. Your non-tech layperson will not know any difference whatsoever if all they use are their phone plan, streaming/banking apps and Facebook.

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upvoteby sneak3 hours ago|
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There was also no way for a normal person to easily and cheaply communicate with 20 million people in realtime.
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upvoteby nrds4 hours ago|
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> a version of the Internet that is just intermittently and somewhat mysteriously broken.

That's actually just how the Internet is. Nothing to do with the great firewall.

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