The internet scares the government


All that activity without control
Any geek can tell you that the internet descends from the old ARPANET. THE major feature of the ARPANET was distributed networking. The idea was that if a node was busy or destroyed, the datastream would continue. There wouldn't be one central location, data would move between nodes as needed.

Today's internet and world wide web build on that idea.

I've covered the difference between hierarchal networks and distributed networks several times before. To summarize, a hierarchy depends on a "top-down" solution, and each ascending rank is correspondingly more powerful than the ones below. The nodes in a distributed network are less individually powerful, but the network itself is much more responsive and incredibly fault tolerant.

It's not that individual bloggers are all that much more capable than the institutional press, it's that there are many bloggers and oddball skills find niches that mainstream reporters would never cover. Remember that Rathergate started because someone knew about IBM Selectric typewriters, someone else knew about military forms from the 1970s, and someone else obsessed on Microsoft Word.

It's that lack of control that makes the politicos nervous. Who knows what the unwashed bloggers might say? Who knows what might become a soundbite overnight? Who knows where the news stories might lead?

That must be why the Imperious Leader and his Grand and Glorious Administration want to control that pesky internet thingy. You see, the internet is the last, best hope for freedom.

Central to all this freedom is your choice.

That is what scares the politicos.

That's why the government wants a press corps that it funds and licenses.

Choose for yourself.

I say KYFHO.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Wed - June 9, 2010 at 01:29 PM  Tag


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