I'm trying something new, just letting my thoughts wander. No editing, just putting down my thoughts as they come (edited, heh). Apologies on the length in advance. TL;DR, scroll down to the italics at the bottom.
To me, a connection to the internet is a portal into a new plane of existence; something that transcends the physical world.
There is so much to explore; some parts dangerous, and likely to cause you trouble; other areas good for a laugh; some places are home to a bunch of friendly locals, who make for good company (I'm looking at you, Escapists).
But I got to thinking about how the internet will be viewed and utilised in the future, and how the internet of the past will be talked about.
As it stands today, I always get a funny little mental image of the internet. It's somewhere between the wild west, the pirate infested seas, and a seedy part of town where you can get anything if you have the right money or connections.
I can just imagine children decades from now talking about the crazy old days of the internet, when anything could happen, and the Internet Police didn't exist yet.
The current state of the internet is mostly unregulated. The biggest leap in crime in recent years could only be Piracy. I don't have figures to back that up, but the fact that 160,000,000 (or was it billion?) songs were pirated last year sums up the situation fairly well.
Internet crime is, at present, a fairly common thing for any fun loving, bible hugging teenager and his/her parents. What's more, stealing has never felt so right. The act of pirating does not even feel like a criminal action. Digression aside, my observation is that the internet is quite the unpoliced wasteland at the moment, with only a few people getting caught and tried for their actions every year (though they are normally punished quite severely), while millions keep breaking the law.
However
A little food for thought; The internet censorship plan in Australia is being put into action, and China has extreme control over what is accessible to its citizens; pioneers for a future, regulated internet?
Up until this point I have never considered that the internet might not always be such a free and easy place. I have taken for granted what a wild and untamed place it is. Rightly so, of course. The sheer logistics of policing such a vast number of transactions and interactions is unfathomable at the moment. However, as censorship comes to affect me, an Australian, I'm forced to consider if one day there will be an internet where people are genuinely afraid of the punishment from committing piracy acts (as well as the many other online criminal activities that can be committed), and where real world consequences result from online actions, where there is a legitimate authority governing internet proceedings, and handing out fines left and right.
So, Do you think the internet will be very different in the future? How so?
Do you think we are anywhere close to the end of the internet's wild west, frontier age?
Does anyone else have funny little mental images of 'internet pirates' as real pirates on the untamed seas of the internet, plundering wealthy corporations and ransacking/raiding websites.
Thanks for your time, if you could put up with my random thoughts.
To me, a connection to the internet is a portal into a new plane of existence; something that transcends the physical world.
There is so much to explore; some parts dangerous, and likely to cause you trouble; other areas good for a laugh; some places are home to a bunch of friendly locals, who make for good company (I'm looking at you, Escapists).
But I got to thinking about how the internet will be viewed and utilised in the future, and how the internet of the past will be talked about.
As it stands today, I always get a funny little mental image of the internet. It's somewhere between the wild west, the pirate infested seas, and a seedy part of town where you can get anything if you have the right money or connections.
I can just imagine children decades from now talking about the crazy old days of the internet, when anything could happen, and the Internet Police didn't exist yet.
The current state of the internet is mostly unregulated. The biggest leap in crime in recent years could only be Piracy. I don't have figures to back that up, but the fact that 160,000,000 (or was it billion?) songs were pirated last year sums up the situation fairly well.
Internet crime is, at present, a fairly common thing for any fun loving, bible hugging teenager and his/her parents. What's more, stealing has never felt so right. The act of pirating does not even feel like a criminal action. Digression aside, my observation is that the internet is quite the unpoliced wasteland at the moment, with only a few people getting caught and tried for their actions every year (though they are normally punished quite severely), while millions keep breaking the law.
However
A little food for thought; The internet censorship plan in Australia is being put into action, and China has extreme control over what is accessible to its citizens; pioneers for a future, regulated internet?
Up until this point I have never considered that the internet might not always be such a free and easy place. I have taken for granted what a wild and untamed place it is. Rightly so, of course. The sheer logistics of policing such a vast number of transactions and interactions is unfathomable at the moment. However, as censorship comes to affect me, an Australian, I'm forced to consider if one day there will be an internet where people are genuinely afraid of the punishment from committing piracy acts (as well as the many other online criminal activities that can be committed), and where real world consequences result from online actions, where there is a legitimate authority governing internet proceedings, and handing out fines left and right.
So, Do you think the internet will be very different in the future? How so?
Do you think we are anywhere close to the end of the internet's wild west, frontier age?
Does anyone else have funny little mental images of 'internet pirates' as real pirates on the untamed seas of the internet, plundering wealthy corporations and ransacking/raiding websites.
Thanks for your time, if you could put up with my random thoughts.
