The significance of the internet

[Edric O]

I have realized that, despite the near-exponential growth of the internet and the increasing role it plays in every human activity, its future and its effects on human society and human history remain giant blank spots for us. No sci-fi author ever predicted the internet, and no sci-fi novels (other than those dealing with the very near future) make any attempt to even guess what the internet might eventually lead to, or how its successor(s) might look like.

Various novelists, political scientists and sociologists have drawn up many possible scenarios for future history, but none of them takes into account the internet. The internet has revolutionized the way we communicate - could it also change (or help change) the structure of our society? And if so, how?

Let's have a brainstorming on the issue...

[Caid Ivik]

In my opinion, fall of communicative barriers has already been a very discussed question. As a proud generation of early cyberpunk we believe it will once become a virtual world, where we will be able to maximize our creative potential, freed from material bindings. However it looks like we forgot that we are limited not only materially in this world, but also spiritually, what we are now discovering in the evolution of the net. Simply the internet evolves without special creative initiatives. It is qualitatively stagnating, altough it spreads.

Internet is a mirror of the world, not its augment.

[Andrew]

Well, it is changing everything, along with today's computers (because without todays (1990's) computers, the internet would be a pretty boring and not very useful thing to the masses).

Business has changed a lot. They have email and automated systems.

Instead of having to hand in a report/document to a superior, it is possible to send it electronically for them to edit if need be.

I communicated with 3 clients today over the internet. 15 years ago I would have had to phone them (costs $) or mail them. Email is becoming a primary communication device for long distance communication for when a response is not immediately required.

For my business research report, I have access to probably hundreds of thousands (or millions) of data from Statistics Canada (the leading statistics body in the world AFAIK (not for the world)). This is free to me as I am a student, and it is free for anyone who accesses it at the university library. I also get access to books, articles etc online through my university.

They offer online courses, and you can do most administrative activities online for univeristy (choosing courses, paying for tuition).

I've started to do some online banking, which makes it easier for me to tell how much money I have, what bills etc. It is online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, unlike the banks which are open 5 days a week for 8 hours a day.

Heck I wouldn't be talking to people from Europe (people at Fed2k) if it were no for the internet.

I can order a meal a day ahead of when I want to eat it from the internet and have it delivered to my house.

20 years from now they will be looking upon this revolution.

More and more people have access to broadband. I currently am on a wireless network (we have an antenna in my house pointing to our silo which has satelites on it). They are planning on expanding the wireless broadband throughout the entire island. Giving everyone access to high speed internet. Instead of dialup.

EDIT - Also government is much more available to the population. I can find all the information about the government from their websites. www.gov.pe.ca Very useful.

I can also find a job on the net.

[Megashrap]

Convenience and easy access to the world is wonderful, and will continue to be probably with tons of improvements. However, I do despise (at the moment) just how much we actually rely on it for basic needs on a daily basis. Banking, credit cards. etc. Last hurricane season comes to mind as far as frustration with it Online banking, getting gas for my car, even a damn grocery store was rendered useless and came to a halt. Failsafes and security issues have got to balance out somehow. Call me paranoid, but 50 plus scientist can't all be wrong on THIS particular security issue..http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cyberwar/etc/letter.html

I think when these issues are addressed, with working solutions, then I will embrace the Internet and all it's glory even more. Well, alot more than now anyway.

[Dude_Doc]

I know that I read somewhere that the internet would sooner or later become fully 3D. How humans would interact in this is above me, but some kind of cyber-googles would most probably be required. Instead of homepages, people would build rooms, a more interactive environment. Eventually, people would be able to actually be in a "chat-room" literally.

As for the society, I believe organizing, communication and overall information will be much easier to find. The internet is rebellious - it is truly a tool of the people!

8)

[Caid Ivik]

Tool of the people...show of their self-organizing analogics and manipulativity.

[Edric O]

The internet will clearly help strengthen democracy and undermine dictatorship (because the internet is the hardest thing in the world to censor), and, of course, it is already making our lives easier, widening our access to information, helping us communicate with people all over the world and forming a "global village", etc. We all know that. I was thinking of something further into the future. The internet will keep growing, more and more people will have access, until everyone is online, and you will be able to get online from literally anywhere. So...? Well, something that pervasive is bound to have some major impact on human society, on the way we relate to other people, even on the way we think. That's what I was talking about.

[Andrew]

A good question is will the internet replace the phone system? I don't mean that people stop using "phones", but everyone will be using VOIP and will be able to order a pizza online and have it delivered to their door in 1/2 and hour.

Will we have little hand held computer things that have high resolution video conferencing with friends etc?

[Caid Ivik]

World could be connected fully, and thus creating a perfect sharing system of information, true Xanadu. Problem is that even now we have here special knots like Google, Yahoo or Wikipedia, which are becoming new superpowers in the cyberworld. Their political potential is extreme, as if there are such knots already now, in future we can expect even more powerful ones. Relations between these knots and lesser autonomous zones (like which are forums like ie this FED2k - altough if you read its rules it is interesting how conformist it it when related to the knots!) will be a truly political playground of future. Information once may turn into a formation and only when we analyze its flow clearly we can say what is the net's sociological impact.