I first imagined something like the internet back in 1990, when I first got a modem. It was obvious what an extraordinary revolution it would be if every computer could easily access a shared comms system, instead of having to connect to lots of different BBS systems. By 1995, it was clearly happening, and the possibilities boggled my mind. I soon realised that this wasn't just about new games, new apps, and new services. The internet was the wild frontier, a place free from the corrosive influence of corporate ideology, run by open-source nuts and paid for with delivered pizza. The bursting of the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s was good news to me. It looked like the corporations had tried to buy the whole place up but failed. Advertising on the net didn't work. Payment was a hassle. Search engines weren't good enough to drive consumers to retail websites. This was all good news to me. The dot-com frenzy was a stark reminder of the ruin that would result if the real-world corporate megaliths got their hands on the internet's steering wheel. But it was only a temporary retreat. Google fixed search engines and invented a new type of advertising that worked. The word 'monetize' was invented and then became ubiquitous in what seemed like a week. Now it's all fucked. The same open-source nuts are still there, but above them we now have a layer of hardcore profit-mongers, mostly VC types, who have bent our wonderful playground into the shape of the world outside. The dream is ruined. There is a successor to the internet coming. I don't know when it will appear or what form it will take. All I know is that it will be awesome, until the predators find their way in.
Certainly a mesh infrastructure would be less susceptible to overt control/monopolization. But that's only the physical layer. Any medium that allows access to millions or billions of 'consumers' will be unlikely to maintain real independence for long. People will invite the corporations into their lives, as they have since the 1930s when the public relations industry was invented by Edward Bernays. There are significant changes in our culture and politics that must happen before we will see progress. Whether that happens in our lifetimes is a coin toss.
Like this? http://news.discovery.com/tech/gear-and-gadgets/outernet-project-seeks-free-internet-access-for-earth-140225.htm Inter-web social commentary is almost always bullied into cynical viewpoints, for more reasons than I care to mention, so I don't post that link without knowing the uniform opinions of those doubting it, but this truly seems like a humane, and evolutionary step in providing the environment necessary to continue the growth of mankind as an interconnected organism of innovation
That just broke my heart a little bit. Okay a lot. Any emerging technologies you consider possible candidates for this successor?