The Internet May Eventually Be Scrapped

In 1992, before the "Internet" was allowed to carry commercial traffic, it was a toy for academics.

That was the age of the "Information Superhighway", where 6 government peering points would be the only legal places for anyone to connect their network to other people's networks. Backbone bandwidth between those points provided at taxpayer expense.

Then, at about the time AlGore was elected vice president, the NSF released the routing tables from their own control. They threw open peering, removed the legal restrictions on commercial traffic, and _BOOM_. What we know as The Internet was created, not by government, but only after government got out of the freaking WAY.

They cannot take it back, it doesn't belong to them. It never did.

"The government did not make the 'Net."

But your forget, Bob, that the US government has guns. They didn't make the oil deposits lying underneath the Middle East, either.

I've predicted for years that the Internet will become the vehicle for the totalitarian state to maintain control over its population. Every day that goes by I watch my predictions come one step closer toward becoming that reality.

When they come knocking on the door of your NOC you will have two choices: Surrender or Guantanamo.

Well, with the webcams, the digitalization of the home, etc., we'll have those t.v.'s that never shut off - always watching you. I love Big Brother!

Quoting: I love Big Brother!

Rather than the TVs that always watch you, I am inclined to think that we'll have those TVs that never shut off and engage your brain tirelessly with worthless drivel, more along the lines of Ray Bradbury's Far. 451. I can see it happening now, as many people never shut off the TV. That's usually my advice to people: Turn off the *&#(*&# TV!! That stuff will rot your brain if you watch too much of it.

Quoting:In 1992, before the "Internet" was allowed to carry commercial traffic, it was a toy for academics.

Actually, the government's original ARPA/DARPA was *NOT* solely intended to be this so-claimed "toy for academics". As the DARPA site http://www.darpa.mil/body/overtheyears.html describes it

Quoting:The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was established in 1958 as the first U.S. response to the Soviet launching of Sputnik. Since that time DARPA's mission has been to assure that the U.S. maintains a lead in applying state-of-the-art technology for military capabilities and to prevent technological surprise from her adversaries. The DARPA organization was as unique as its role, reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense and operating in coordination with, but completely independent of, the military research and development (R&D) establishment. Strong support from the senior DoD management has always been essential since DARPA was designed to be an anathema to the conventional military and R&D structure and, in fact, to be a deliberate counterpoint to traditional thinking and approaches.

Also see the pre-1992 ARPA/DARPA timeline at http://www.darpa.mil/body/arpa_darpa.html

I didn't read the specific article that this discussion is on, but I've read several similar stories in the last few days at CNN and MSNBC. I didn't get the impression that the government wanted to 'take back' the Internet, but that the technology underlying it, which *was* created by DARPA, is a bit outdated and maybe a better mouse trap could be built.

The Internet is no longer American property. All of those open standards, and robust infrastructure built largely on open-source software, have been taken and implemented around the globe. All the USA will accomplish, if it tries to shut down or hobble the existing Internet, as if they were necking down lanes on Interstates and posting Work Area -- Speed Limit Change Ahead -- Speeding Fines Doubled In Road Crew Areas, to shunt traffic over to where they want it to go, particularly into the new No-Privacy zones, will be to turn those sections of the US Internet into virtual slums and backwaters where commerce and communications don't work well and dollars don't flow because people won't go.

The Internet is global, now, and well able to route around damage (except for ICANN, but I think that patch is coming too -- since it's a single point of failure for the system, it's equally vulnerable in that it only has to fail once). It has an established method of dealing with perceived netwide problems, centered around open discussion and RFCs followed by incremental improvement, and any attempt to supercede the process with government fiat is likely to repeat King Canute's demonstration that some forces are greater than any defacto monarchy.