That. Is. Amazing.

Whenever I think about the internet being everywhere and in everything I immediately start to think about privacy and security and our lives. I wonder how regulated it is going to become in the future and if the laws will ever catch up - and keep up - with the constantly expanding online world. That watch that measures your sleep patterns? Let's hope it doesn't show you didn't sleep well the night before you got into a car accident. That thermostat that knows when you will be arriving home so your house can be properly climate controlled? Let's hope it doesn't go off when your wife takes a lunch break with the pool boy.

I wonder if over regulation and realizations like the NSA will stifle growth and keep people from being able to enjoy the internet as I enjoy it or if the same privacy we used to be afforded is long gone. Will there be graphs tracing the age at which kids first typed in "boobies" into Google? No one will ever know the sexy search words I experimented with when I was X years old. I'm sure it won't be the same for my children.

We are already more accepting of having less privacy but I still choose what goes up on Facebook at any given point (edit: or maybe not :/). That makes it a bit easier to accept. The hidden distribution and tracking of data is becoming more worrisome. Whether it's my iPhone running in the backgroundto let me know how long it will take me to get to work or Google using my location and past searches to tailor current searches to me, the internet is quickly becoming something that is both seen and unseen.

On the surface we have information that I put up there: my tweets, my facebook pictures, my comments on Hubski, my bookmarks or notes in things like Evernote or Dropbox.

Underneath there are things that aren't seen. I may search for something on Google but once I close that tab it goes away. I don't see it anymore. But it still exists somewhere. It gets turned into Google Trends Graphs If I make a search on my phone from a location in New York, it knows it. Advertisements track me from site to site in order to better target ads to me. I don't see these things and I don't know what Google or advertisers think they know about me. I don't always choose what I share with these people now.

That's part of what I forsee the future of the internet being. The anonymous transactions of information that make every day are disappearing quickly. The embarrassing secrets we share or the questions we ask may disappear in the future. Our kids may live in a world where their Google searches are made with an Orwellian doublethink sort of care.

However, the amount of accessible information and friendships and interactions is what makes the internet so special and amazing. We can communicate instantly, find communities of people who share our thirst for knowledge, have fights and spats and love triangles and relationships. What we can learn and share and experience is becoming less limited and that's exciting. Hopefully there will be a balance and smart decisions made as far as laws and regulations and data collection that won't hinder our use of the internet, but expand it.

further reading

One of the things mentioned is that we will be able to curate and share our stream of conciousness online forever. In the past we've only had the writings of people to give us a look into their minds. The problem with data on the internet, however, is in practical terms it's rather ephemeral. I know we joke about, "You can't delete something from the internet" but as we've all know it costs money to keep something running and for many businesses it eventually becomes necessary to shut things down.

It's a minor quibble, admittedly, when thinking/dreaming of things like having a massive connected network that span multiple planets and who knows, we might live long enough to be able to curate our legacy as well. I really hope we develop some sort of ultra-long term storage technology. That way, even if civilization goes up in flames some aliens could unearth my collection of blog posts.

I remember the first time I saw e-mail. I guess it would be around 1988, when my dad first set up a computer with a modem in our house. He explained that he was sending information and receiving information from another university. I think I would have been more impressed I could have seen what he was talking about, but as it was, it was just words on the screen.

It's clear that the internet will be a continued presence in our lives and while Loon seems like it will be helpful in erasing the line between online/offline, I can't help but wonder how infrastructure will have to change. I live in an area of America with a lot of trees and the power often goes out when it gets really stormy or even just really windy. I've lived in other parts of the world where power outages were even more common. For the online/offline division to disappear completely, I'd think that we'd first need to address the robustness of our power supply on at least a local municipal level. However, I haven't heard of any advances in that area, or even ideas on how that might be explored, much less solved.

Also, if people, societies, businesses and governments are all set to become more reliant on the internet, how can we move forward without being vulnerable to any potential unforeseen disruptions of the internet, say from a natural disaster or other event outside of our control?

I remember first encountering a stranger online. It was a chat on a BBS. She was a middle aged woman. I was a young teenage boy. It blew my mind to see her words appearing live across the screen. I don't remember anything about our short conversation, but I remember having it and thinking that everything was going to change.

Really great episode, Cadell.

First of all, thank you for the mention of my great, great, great, grandfather TheOldGreen. -He was good people. And I'm glad you mentioned Hubski, that was great.

I watched this with some friends last night and they mentioned that they'd like to see a remix that uses really ominous music in the background because this topic and all that you mention could also seem extremely terrifying to many people. Not everyone is as enthusiastic about the ubiquity of internet connectedness. Not everyone sees the "Internet of things" as a positive development. You ought to give some sinister music a shot, just to be funny :)

I'm mixed on my enthusiasm for the future of the Internet. -Incredibly promising as it may be, I'm more cynical than you. I voted for Obama... twice.