5 ms·

I don't think anything designed by committee could match the flexibility and resilience of the currently evolved system. The current internet works because its

I don't think anything designed by committee could match the flexibility and resilience of the currently evolved system. The current internet works because its been evolving in-situ for 20 years, reacting to problems and vulnerabilities as they occur. Anything starting again from scratch would be broken at first and then also need to go through a long period of evolution.

adekok 12y ago
The system hasn't evolved on it's own, like bacteria. It has changed over time due to new systems which were designed by people. Knowing what we know now, would those designs be different? Undoubtably, yes. Would they likely be better? Likewise, yes. Anyone who's worked with protocols knows just how bad the initial design usually is.
sdouglas 12y ago
I think this is a really good point. Like the human body, the Internet has it's flaws but in many ways is incredibly well suited to its purpose. An interesting article (which I'm sure many have already read) which discusses how the more organic TCP/IP won out over the incredibly organised effort of OSI can be found here: http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/osi-the-internet-that-wasnt http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/osi-the-internet...
kabouseng 12y ago
But the internet was designed by a comittee...and guiding its evolution as you call it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Engineering_Task_Force http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Engineering_Task_Force http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Technical_Committee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Technical_Committee And I am sure DARPA and whomever worked on the original networking protocols would horify you by their style of design by comittee...
- codeulike 12y ago
  But are the things that actually got used and flourished the things that the committee expected?

5 ms·

I don't think anything designed by committee could match the flexibility and resilience of the currently evolved system. The current internet works because its

by codeulike 12y ago

adekok 12y ago
The system hasn't evolved on it's own, like bacteria. It has changed over time due to new systems which were designed by people. Knowing what we know now, would those designs be different? Undoubtably, yes. Would they likely be better? Likewise, yes. Anyone who's worked with protocols knows just how bad the initial design usually is.
sdouglas 12y ago
I think this is a really good point. Like the human body, the Internet has it's flaws but in many ways is incredibly well suited to its purpose. An interesting article (which I'm sure many have already read) which discusses how the more organic TCP/IP won out over the incredibly organised effort of OSI can be found here: http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/osi-the-internet-that-wasnt http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/osi-the-internet...
kabouseng 12y ago
But the internet was designed by a comittee...and guiding its evolution as you call it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Engineering_Task_Force http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Engineering_Task_Force http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Technical_Committee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Technical_Committee And I am sure DARPA and whomever worked on the original networking protocols would horify you by their style of design by comittee...
- codeulike 12y ago
  But are the things that actually got used and flourished the things that the committee expected?