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What is to prevent that from becoming privatized and incentivized by whoever owns it? Why rebuild the wheel? We have decent infrastructure already. We just n

What is to prevent that from becoming privatized and incentivized by whoever owns it? Why rebuild the wheel? We have decent infrastructure already. We just need society to not mess it up.

gravypod 10y ago
It's hard to privatize a system of radio links. When everyone's network is owned by themselves no one can really take that away from them. The only reason most networks are privately owned right now is the extremely high cost of laying down physical infrastructure. We saw that severely slow the progress of Google(!) Fiber. If a giant like Google has troubles with the cost of laying down cable on ciy-land then imagine what you or I have to deal with? This goes away with radios and building interconnects.
- unityByFreedom 10y ago
  Aren't radio frequencies regulated by the government, which can be lobbied by private interests? I still think focusing on net neutrality is best. If someone out there would rather work on a radio system, that's great! Personally, I feel the government could take that away by punishing people who operate using rogue waves, so, why not work together and get it right in our existing society and infrastructure.
  - nebabyte 10y ago
    Yes. The underlying systemic issues do not get addressed or solved by "well let's just get to the next tech revolution first", that is simply a lazy idyllic 'solution' for those who don't think through their proposals. In this case, meshnets would likely be lobbied into only being operable by licensed entities as radio waves are now. - Lobby to quickly fabricate and sell appropriate talking points (ensure some anti-terrorism or anti-CP laws in there to gain mass support) to congress and the media - catch a few mesh operators and bring the hammer down on them, quickly making an example that kills off support for the niche community - provide the alternative; enumerable 'licensed' operators to exist that sap demand for unregulated comms ('not worth the effort' or consequences of point 2) and maintain the same (or likely evolved - there'd probably be a smarter way to profiteer off meshnets than trying to meter mesh devices for 'fastlanes' but maybe they'd start there) regulations that maintain your profit margin And there goes your 'fix'. The reality is that whatever technology you develop, the monkeys with big sticks will always be able to skewer you, so it's up to you and everyone to collectively agree what we decide are skewerable offenses, not merely to say 'well let's just get to the iron age first so we don't have to worry about it'.
    - louithethrid 10y ago
      You could make transport-nodes illegal, as in a cellphone-virus which silently does transport duty? I also wonder if people in non-democracies wouldnt be willing to have this app- aslong as there is a chance to provide ability to deny installing it.

What is to prevent that from becoming privatized and incentivized by whoever owns it? Why rebuild the wheel? We have decent infrastructure already. We just need society to not mess it up.

gravypod 10y ago

It's hard to privatize a system of radio links. When everyone's network is owned by themselves no one can really take that away from them. The only reason most networks are privately owned right now is the extremely high cost of laying down physical infrastructure. We saw that severely slow the progress of Google(!) Fiber. If a giant like Google has troubles with the cost of laying down cable on ciy-land then imagine what you or I have to deal with? This goes away with radios and building interconnects.

unityByFreedom 10y ago
Aren't radio frequencies regulated by the government, which can be lobbied by private interests? I still think focusing on net neutrality is best. If someone out there would rather work on a radio system, that's great! Personally, I feel the government could take that away by punishing people who operate using rogue waves, so, why not work together and get it right in our existing society and infrastructure.
- nebabyte 10y ago
  Yes. The underlying systemic issues do not get addressed or solved by "well let's just get to the next tech revolution first", that is simply a lazy idyllic 'solution' for those who don't think through their proposals. In this case, meshnets would likely be lobbied into only being operable by licensed entities as radio waves are now. - Lobby to quickly fabricate and sell appropriate talking points (ensure some anti-terrorism or anti-CP laws in there to gain mass support) to congress and the media - catch a few mesh operators and bring the hammer down on them, quickly making an example that kills off support for the niche community - provide the alternative; enumerable 'licensed' operators to exist that sap demand for unregulated comms ('not worth the effort' or consequences of point 2) and maintain the same (or likely evolved - there'd probably be a smarter way to profiteer off meshnets than trying to meter mesh devices for 'fastlanes' but maybe they'd start there) regulations that maintain your profit margin And there goes your 'fix'. The reality is that whatever technology you develop, the monkeys with big sticks will always be able to skewer you, so it's up to you and everyone to collectively agree what we decide are skewerable offenses, not merely to say 'well let's just get to the iron age first so we don't have to worry about it'.
  - louithethrid 10y ago
    You could make transport-nodes illegal, as in a cellphone-virus which silently does transport duty? I also wonder if people in non-democracies wouldnt be willing to have this app- aslong as there is a chance to provide ability to deny installing it.