Internet: It's been real, people, but the boom is lowering.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Awesome points by barracuda and I agree with 82_28's implication 100% and was just discussing this with some nerd friends who hipped me to it -- they think that Netflix will be the Trojan horse "problem" that kills the internet as we know it. Not censorship, not terrorism, but Netflix crippling internet bandwidth.

[beeline]

.

And those newfangled Google televisions aren't going to help.

[Simulist]

Something tells me that much of the internet will always remain free, just because it's such an excellent way to spy on people.

[Luther Blissett]

I'm sure you've said it before somewhere and I've missed it, but what do you recommend a human being with a conscience and some desire to do something other than completely withdraw do? Are people who will not see or who will only see what supports their preconceived notions completely beyond any informational redemption? Is there some age cut off beyond which we should not waste a breath or a keystroke in any persuasive efforts?

I don't recommend withdrawal, but engagement within the scope of understanding the limits of most individual's ability to make an impact beyond the local arena of influence, and to consider the ripple effect of living your life in an exemplary manner, which can be huge. I recommend telling everyone in earshot just what you think, obvously. However, I do believe there are clear epistemological issues wwhich have come into sharp focus with the introduction of the hive mind/global village/propaganda praxis that the internet embodies. Among those issues is the idea that given enough information, people will make the right choices, or choices which are in their best interests. It has been shown to almost never be the case.

Teaching children will likely soon be seen to be a revolutionary gesture, so there's that.

[Penguin]

Awesome points by barracuda and I agree with 82_28's implication 100% and was just discussing this with some nerd friends who hipped me to it -- they think that Netflix will be the Trojan horse "problem" that kills the internet as we know it. Not censorship, not terrorism, but Netflix crippling internet bandwidth.

Why not just lay down more fiberoptic cabling?
Albeit we are a rather small country - here fiber to every apartment is appearing in the larger cities, and is often built into new buildings. My area cable company just finished upgrading their network, now up to 100 mbit cable is available. And it really delivers the speed it promises, even at peak hours. I have a 40 mbit line that is also pretty affordable.

Operators (ISPs) already offer video streaming services where users can watch streaming high quality videos whenever they please, either for fixed fee or per movie cost. It has caused no problems for the general use. In this case, as the operators themselves offer the service, it is in their interest that the quality is good and they have bandwidth to cope with the service.

Of course the situation can be different if the network doesn't have enough extra capacity to deal with varying large bandwidth usage.
..
Just noticed this on Cryptogon -
http://www.technofascismblog.com/2010/1 ... -1252.html

In case many of you have been doing more important things than paying attention to the latest techno-apocalypitc developments, such as growing your own food, or stocking up on supplies, you may not have heard of the “Internet of Things.” And what is the “Internet of Things?” Well, from the perspective of the vast spy agencies, the internet has one fatal flaw: if you’re not on it, they can’t spy on you. Bummer. So, to get around this little inconvenience of privacy, the latest push is to get every physical object in the world online. That’s right. Everything from your car, to your toaster, will eventually be connected and controllable through the internet. It seems that the Gods on Mount Olympus have had such great success with the virtual world that they now want to bring everything into it. And that means more control for them and less freedom for everyone else.

The latest marketing-speak word from the architects of the “Internet of Things” at IBM is “smart.” So, in the near future, when the CIA can log into any device you own–from your toothbrush to your bookshelf–and determine who’s been using them and when and where, that’s not an invasion of privacy–it’s “smart.” Of course, in reality this is only “smart” for the temporary controllers of the machine world. For the rest of us the “Internet of Things” is not only dumb, it’s the next logical step to automating the entire planet under the control of a single machine intelligence. Fun times ahead!

Read more:

IBM – Internet of Things http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/th/en/ ... index.html

[justdrew]

Awesome points by barracuda and I agree with 82_28's implication 100% and was just discussing this with some nerd friends who hipped me to it -- they think that Netflix will be the Trojan horse "problem" that kills the internet as we know it. Not censorship, not terrorism, but Netflix crippling internet bandwidth.

Why not just lay down more fiberoptic cabling?

because actually doing their job and expanding capacity would cost munny. and they've spent all their munny buying the government. expanding capacity would mean doing real work, and god forbid, paying those disgusting working people precious munny! shudder. Better to just find new ways to get more money out of the existing capacity.

America's Ignorant, Incompetent and Incapable executive/management class.
D r i v i n g _ A m e r i c a _ i n t o _ t h e _ d i t c h _ f o r _ d e c a d e s !

[Wombaticus Rex]

Something tells me that much of the internet will always remain free, just because it's such an excellent way to spy on people.

Surely this is worthy of some RI prize. That was a winner on a holographically entangled number of fronts at once. Bleak optimism, perfectly stated.

[nathan28]

Awesome points by barracuda and I agree with 82_28's implication 100% and was just discussing this with some nerd friends who hipped me to it -- they think that Netflix will be the Trojan horse "problem" that kills the internet as we know it. Not censorship, not terrorism, but Netflix crippling internet bandwidth.

Why not just lay down more fiberoptic cabling?

because actually doing their job and expanding capacity would cost munny. and they've spent all their munny buying the government. expanding capacity would mean doing real work, and god forbid, paying those disgusting working people precious munny! shudder. Better to just find new ways to get more money out of the existing capacity.

America's Ignorant, Incompetent and Incapable executive/management class.
D r i v i n g _ A m e r i c a _ i n t o _ t h e _ d i t c h _ f o r _ d e c a d e s !

This is all true, except the "internet will collapse b/c of video" story have been floated for about four years now and hasn't. Bandwidth gets throttled and Netflix etc. downgrade your stream, so I'm not concerned yet.

Most of all is the fact that ATT took so much federal $$$ to lay infrastructure, and then what did they do? Converted forty-year-old copper phone lines that are falling apart to DSL. Why hasn't the gov't sued? Warrantless wiretaps we can believe in, or whatever.

[JackRiddler]

By who?

By those who say that knowledge is power. Even, daresay, by those who would seek to free themselves under the banner of "what you don't know can't hurt them."

I'm sure you've said it before somewhere and I've missed it, but what do you recommend a human being with a conscience and some desire to do something other than completely withdraw do? Are people who will not see or who will only see what supports their preconceived notions completely beyond any informational redemption? Is there some age cut off beyond which we should not waste a breath or a keystroke in any persuasive efforts?

I don't recommend withdrawal, but engagement within the scope of understanding the limits of most individual's ability to make an impact beyond the local arena of influence, and to consider the ripple effect of living your life in an exemplary manner, which can be huge. I recommend telling everyone in earshot just what you think, obvously. However, I do believe there are clear epistemological issues wwhich have come into sharp focus with the introduction of the hive mind/global village/propaganda praxis that the internet embodies. Among those issues is the idea that given enough information, people will make the right choices, or choices which are in their best interests. It has been shown to almost never be the case.

As far as political choices are concerned, this is certainly true in the absence of an education steeped from childhood in critical thinking, research methods and epistemology, social psychology and history, conducted by committed teachers in a warm and intellectually challenging environment. Naturally you would not be calling it epistemology in second grade, but you know what I mean.

.

[anothershamus]

Hey gnosticheresy_2 I loved that dog discussion group! lMAO

We can only hope that some of the Emmanuel Goldstein, 2600, 4chan /b/ crowd might be able to hack out a trail for cheap internet for the people.