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This article seems to be just the kind of positive vibe that geeks love to read: "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." Yeah, right. I
by lhnz 15y ago
This article seems to be just the kind of positive vibe that geeks love to read: "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." Yeah, right. I don't see any evidence that we will have a usable underground internet soon, and in the meantime an ultra-censored, walled-garden internet appears inevitable.
Technical efforts might eventually create a platform which cannot be controlled by the government but it will be a very long time before this is usable for all but the most technical people. By the time something is ready for the the average public we will have had a censored internet and no viable uncensored platform for many years. How will you convince average joe that they should be interested in such a project? This will be a niche service used by child pornographers, drug traffickers, file sharers and freedom geeks. Good luck convincing anybody to identify with that group.
- nupark2 15y agoI genuinely agree with you on all points. However, I do have one small note; the early 90s internet was also unusable for all but the most technical people. It was also fantastic, and I'd largely be happy to have access to an internet community of that size and quality today -- especially since I wouldn't have to also give up today's consumer internet.
- count 15y agoIRC and USENET never went away...
- nupark2 15y agoUSENET: The eternal September. IRC: mIRC
- jiggy2011 15y agoPherhaps it would go full circle? Darknet starts as a place for hardcore techies , so the techies that use it start to build cool stuff for it and self regulate. The cool stuff attracts the semi-technical early adopters who bring money to the party. The money is used to finance more cool stuff and eventually innovation on the darknet outpaces the normal internet due to the lesser restriction. Soon the masses arrive and now every business wants a 'dark site', piracy explodes and major corporations and government try to get their tentacles into gaining more control over the darknet.
- sehugg 15y agoI agree the article is geeky. But I'll point you to all the "freedom geeks" in the PRC bypassing the Great Firewall with simple VPN software as a counterexample to your claim.
- zaphar 15y agoI have no problem being identified with freedom geeks. I don't think lumping all 4 groups you listed as one group is a foregone conclusion. It seems to me that for the most part people recognize that you can be a member of one while not being a member of the other. While it may take a certain amount of technical skill to participate that still leaves a free, as in freedom, route open for the dissemination of information. That is, after all, the first step. You can bet that as long as a route remains open then that route will be made easier to use. I point you toward the LOIC as an example. My mother if she were so inclined to take part in a DDOS with that. Something that as recently as a year ago would have been beyond her.
- jiggy2011 15y agoIt seems to me that for the most part people recognize that you can be a member of one while not being a member of the other. Do you think so? People can be very quick to paint people into very broad categories. I would imagine that if you were to join a network where child porn was readily available then it doesn't matter how much you shout about doing it for freedom of speech etc, many people will assume that your secretly only there for the child porn.
- jiggy2011 15y agoThis is very true, even if the government does not outright ban use of darknets their use could be stigmatized enough in society to the point that people who use them would be viewed with suspicion.