The End of the Internet?

The nation’s largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.

Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets–corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers–would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.

I love the Internet as it is. It is full of a very thorough cross section of the sum total of human thought and expression. As such it is chocked full of contradictions, rumor, and full blown lies. It also contains most of the answers to most of the questions out there. That’s why I love it. Each question is a journey with lots of great scenery along the way. The best part is that it is free. It is a mega library and so much more.

To me it is a huge part in the good stuff that humanity has going for it right now. It is one of the few mediums that is cross cultural (and getting better all the time with translators). It brings people together and fosters community among groups that would normally be too far apart geographically to ever meet in person.

If this comes to be I vote that we all sell everything we own, buy some land up north or maybe a small island in the Pacific and start a very lewd cognoscenti commune.

Well, maybe just a little lewd.

Leave your vote for the ideal location for this utopia in the comments.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 2nd, 2006 at 9:03 pm and is filed under indiscriminate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.