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Do We Need a New Internet?
Richard.Tao and a number of other readers sent in a NYTimes piece by John Markoff asking whether the Internet is so broken it needs to be replaced. "...[T]here is a growing belief among engineers and security experts that Internet security and privacy have become so maddeningly elusive that the only way to fix the problem is to start over. What a new Internet might look like is still widely debated, but one alternative would, in effect, create a 'gated community' where users would give up their anonymity and certain freedoms in return for safety. Today that is already the case for many corporate and government Internet users. As a new and more secure network becomes widely adopted, the current Internet might end up as the bad neighborhood of cyberspace. You would enter at your own risk and keep an eye over your shoulder while you were there." A less alarmist reaction to the question was blogged by David Akin: "If you build a new Internet and you want me to get a license to drive on it, sorry. I'm hanging out here in v.1."
She obviously knows a lot about what it's like to go down. ;-)
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Congratulations on your witty comment. If I was to write something like that I'd tick the anonymous box too.
Did you stop for a moment to think maybe there is no choice in ISP where the parent is based? For example, there are plenty of places in the US where there is no competitive business vying for your money.
Yeah, awesome anecdote. Now go and find the overall crime rates for the uber million dollar gated communities, vs, say, a Jo'burg ghetto.
Honestly, as cute as that Franklin quote is, it's pretty risible seeing it getting trotted out to suggest there is never any possibility of gaining non-illusory security by doing anything, ever, nor would any group of people ever consider a liberty/security tradeoff worth making, whatever the group, and for any given values of security or liberty.
Vista.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.