From Net to Mesh

At the moment the biggest threat to freedom on the internet is that it is controlled by large entities, such as telephone companies, cable companies and governments. For example, during the uprising in Egypt, the Egyptian government was able to disable the internet in that country relatively easily. Also, more and more of the internet is controlled by fewer and fewer corporations. How can this trend be countered?

The answer is "blowing in the wind." In the current configuration of the internet, most end nodes, desktops, laptops, smartphones, etc., are connected to relatively few connecting nodes provided by telephone and cable companies called IPs (internet providers). Well some tech people have built what is known as "mesh" networks where the end user nodes are also connecting nodes. For a relatively small investment in hardware and software, anyone with a wireless device of some sort can hook into one of these mesh networks. At the present, these communities are relatively small. But, I see this as the wave of the future. Eventually the intermesh will replace the internet in the same way that the internet grew from a few nodes to millions.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Good question! It will be absolutely impossible to police the intermesh. File sharing, copyright infringement, sexual content and all sorts of cyber crime will absolutely explode. On the other hand, political dissent, leaks of secret information and freedom of expression cannot be curtailed. This may change everything in ways impossible to foresee, as the internet and home computing has.

How the Internet Changed Everything

When I first started reading science fiction, around the age of twelve, the world was a different place. A telephone was a black instrument chained to the wall by a cord. Books had hard covers. Computers were a gleam in some scientist's eye. Even science fiction was packaged in 8 ½ by 11 magazines printed on blotting paper with garish covers on them. Getting to the moon was an impossible dream. The only people you considered your friends lived in your neighborhood, and you corresponding with people by writing a letter on paper and mailing it. Only a few people had TV sets and the shows were in black and white. Even the science-fiction writers I read could not guess the changes that would occur in the twenty-first century.

Of all the changes that have occurred since then, none changed our way of life more profoundly than the home computer and the internet. And the changes are accelerating. Who would've ever believed that one could carry around a powerful computer in your pocket? That people would read books on devices that would threaten the print book industry? And who would believe that you could get information on any subject simply by typing in the subject and clicking on an icon labeled Search? Or order any item at the lowest possible price simply by typing and clicking an the back of a gadget that looks like a bug or a mouse?

That people would be in constant touch with people they hardly know all over the world and get all the details of their lives? Or that people would spend hours in virtual worlds? Or that secrecy would come to an end where even the most repressive government cannot control what information their people receive or what secrets are revealed? Or that people would get in traffic accidents because they are typing messages while they drive? That I could talk to my daughter face-to-face even though she lives three thousand miles away? That a gadget in my car would give directions on how to go anywhere as I drive, telling me exactly when I need to turn as I approach the intersection?

And that is only the beginning of the changes that are occurring. Soon we'll have robot servants, driverless automobiles and the ability to speak to our computers instead of having to type or use a mouse. Just recently a video game allows a person to control the action by simply waving arms around. And what about the special effects in movies these days? And now 3D TV sets are available.

The digital age has ushered a new language as well. Here are few of the new words: LOL, FAQ, IM-ing, E-mailing, E-books, download, upload, web site, internet, web page, tweeting, unfriending, writing on a wall, Twitter, Facebook, Google and googling, and on and on.

It's hard to say what will be next. Today's world goes so far beyond the world of my youth that even the most imaginative SF writers of that time could not imagine it.