Is the Internet doomed to fail? A Commentary…

April 3, 2009 on 2:33 pm | By Peder | In Main | No Comments

In other words, has the Internet passed its “use-by” date?

It is interesting conjecture that “The” Internet is doomed. I agree that “The Current State” of the Internet will be different tomorrow and if we declare every variation of what the Internet looked like in the past as being dead then I would urge that the Internet already died and will do so every day into the future as a new one emerges.

The language, or protocols, of the Internet will continually change and the infrastructure that drives it will change along with its owners and the cost and economics for access with change along with it. The Internet has gone from a generic name for the interconnection of a bunch of defense and research networks into really the concept of an interconnected global economy. Should one part of the Internet have better network performance, or should content move to no longer being free doesn’t change the underlying definition of an Internet.

The success of the Internet has been due to its ubiquity and its ability to change with the times. The protocols and devices of an IP network designed to protect against physical failure has grown into something that is adjusting with the times. It is only fitting that in year of Darwin’s 200th anniversary that we have the ability to watch the evolution of an organism (the Internet) that isn’t even biological before our eyes. The Internet has become something beyond any singular definition and new protocols, just like your favorite websites, will come and go and many will not survive. This is the Internet’s strength, not weakness.

Researchers may try and define where the Internet should go but it doesn’t mean the Internet will go that direction. Sometimes the death of one pathway forward has unintentional benefits. SMTP as a protocol for email is fraught with problems and has led to SPAM clogging the Internet yet my son spends more time on instant messenger systems without even the concept of SPAM and I don’t think he would think the Internet died if SMTP went away and I think many wouldn’t care. That’s evolution at its best.

As you might imagine, I don’t believe the Internet can die since you can’t define it nor prevent anything new you create from being percieved as still the Internet. And if Google wants to isolate themselves from the rest of us (which I doubt) they only have thier own history to look back and think about whether we miss Altavista today.