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Hannu H. Kari Gives The Internet 2 More Years

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the but-he's-warning-you dept.

erick99 writes "Dr. Hannu Kari says the Internet will will collapse in 2006 as reported in an article on ARS Technica. Yes, this is the same Dr. Kari who has predicted doom before, but it is still an entertaining read and there is more than a grain of truth in his reasoning." Reader Titney writes adds a couple of excerpts from an article on NewsRoom Finland: "The entire system will crumble to bits as the sheer bulk of rubbish circling around in the net exceeds the public pain threshold. ... When the internet is no longer operational for business purposes, one has to time warp back 10 to 20 years and make do without information networks"

14 of 465 comments (clear)

  1. If Hannu H. Kari dosn't work for... by stecoop · · Score: 5, Funny

    Until Netcraft confirms it I wont believe it. I'll back check in two years at http://www.netcraft.com to verify his findings.

    -- a 2006 web odyssey

    1. Re:If Hannu H. Kari dosn't work for... by guyjr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Certainly the "public pain threshold" was reached long ago on T.V., and longer ago before that on radio, and still, we've got our boob tubes, and ear jocks every morning, afternoon, and night.

      The public doesn't really care about advertising, in whatever form it comes. Certainly not enough, anyway, to give up their lazy lifestyles of channel surfing and station tuning.

    2. Re:If Hannu H. Kari dosn't work for... by TFGeditor · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Comments like this make me embarrassed to be a geek (albeit an old one).

      Not everyone has the luxury of "hiding" their email address. For many of us, our work *requires* making our email address public--even to the point of posting it on a website. In my case, it also appears in a magazine each month.

      So, get off your high horse and take a peek at the real world. You will see things that utterly amaze.

      --
      Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
    3. Re:If Hannu H. Kari dosn't work for... by Cylix · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yeah,

      They wanted to do that at work. I simply refused to publicly display any of our email addresses. The last account/address they had was a spam fest because of this.

      So, I coded a simple web form for placing comments. The webform message allows someone to supply a reply to address and then its sent off to everyone who needs to respond to it.

      What's really funny... one day.. someone actually cut and pasted their spam into the webform. (I went to the persons website... they were not remotely technically inclined)

      It's very easy to get in touch with us via email and this technique really impairs harvesting.

      --
      "You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
  2. Recursive Linking by jolyonr · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've always wondered whether a story that mentions Slashdot in the subject would bring on a recurisve slashdotting that would result in the ultimate destruction of the internet.

    Well, it's worth a try anyway

    --


    Please read my Canon EOS tech blog at http://www.everyothershot.com
  3. He's not too terribly inconsistent though... by BaldGhoti · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those who didn't RTFA (like the editor), he was indeed predicting the end of the internet back in 2001. However, he was predicting that there were five years left. So he's been consistent on 2006.

    Not that he's, yanno, sane or anything, but at least he's consistent.

    --
    [insert witty sig here]
  4. But after the internet rapture... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...we all get fiber in heaven with no caps.

  5. Re:All together now... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's a citation for that quote. The Internet. On the edge of collapse since 1981.

  6. Already happened on a limited scale. by etymxris · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For example, I used to enjoy debates on newsgroups, but last I checked (several years ago), they were just full of trash. The topics I was interested in had been largely abandoned by those that were actually knowledgable in the fields due in great part to this.

    Another example is Yahoo message boards. Here we see what the lack of pretty much any moderation entails. Spam infested, crapflood infested, it's pretty difficult to get any meaningful discussion there.

    I think what will happen is that there will be heavier moderation and more stringent entrance requirements for various online forums. The Internet will still function, it just won't be as open as it once was.

    1. Re:Already happened on a limited scale. by Benwick · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly. Newsgroups have been trashed. Once back around 1992 they were practically a gathering of experts all around the world (and the occasional fringe wacko); now they're nothing but spam and all discussion is by fringe wackos (who don't know how to tell spam, trolling, and flaming from real responses). So the *interpersonal* aspects of the Internet may be doomed. E-mail spam, IM spam, etc. threaten those technologies.

      But the Internet is a lot of different things. The use of the Internet as, effectively, a billboard, with controlled content (moderation, web editing, etc), is not really at risk. BBC News is not at risk, nor are most generally non-interactive websites.

      So much for the electronic frontier. Anarchy is always good until you have actual people involved.

  7. has this guy never heard of adapting? by spacerodent · · Score: 5, Insightful

    does this guy seriously think people will just sit by and let this happen, even assumning it's possible? I think it's safe to say at the first sign of problems around 6 gillion nerds world wide would start working on fixes and sending them to anyone who might possibly give a damn. Given the number of users, even IF this is a problem, it could be solved quickly.

  8. Predictions by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is this like the predication that we'd run out of IP addresses in the late 1990's. We all know that happened. Wait, no it didn't. Humans fixed the problem with private networks and NATing. In the process, they improved security and sanctity of their networks.

    It's a funny thing, networks. You see, since humans control them, they make changes and adjustments in response to the needs of the network. Thus the network grows, adapts, and becomes a more powerful entity.

    That being said, there are two things I wish I could exorcise from the net: Spam and viruses. These two creatures are responsible for more useless traffic than just about anything else. It would also be nice if protocols like GNUTella died or were fixed. The number of useless packets generated by such protocols is amazing.

    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  9. Re:And for anyone who believes this... by That's+Unpossible! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It means the internet, our internet, can go back to what it was before the companies started fucking it up; a medium for free information exchange.

    Back when it was "our internet" (as you put it), there was nowhere near the amount of free information exchange as there is today, in large part DUE to contributions by companies across the world.

    Companies haven't fucked up the internet, they've given us more things we can do over the internet. The things that actually trash the internet are: script kiddies, virus writers, spammers, and evil countries.

    --
    Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
  10. Kari's prediction on Television in the 60's by mekkab · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Television programming will become so bogged down with advertisements and pandering to the lowest common denominator that it will collapse under its own weight in bloat, and we will go back to the telegrammophone."

    --
    In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.