These have
to be THE coolest ideas ever!
Let me begin
with a very picturesque description of the current Internet of Things taken from one of my dearest books- The New Digital Age by Eric
Schmidt and Jared Cohen at Google.
“The
Internet is among the few things humans have built that they don’t completely understand.
What began as a means of electronic transmission-room sized computer to room
sized computer-has transformed into an omnipresent and endlessly multi-faceted outlet
for human energy and expression. It is at once tangible and in a constant state
of mutation, growing larger and more complex with each passing second. It is a
source for tremendous good and potentially dreadful evil, and we’re only just
beginning to witness its impact on the world stage.
The Internet
is the largest experiment involving anarchy in history. Hundreds of millions of
people are, at each minute, creating and consuming an untold amount of digital
content in an online world that is not truly bound by terrestrial bounds. This
new capacity for free expression and free movement of information has generated
the rich virtual landscape that we know today. Think of all the websites you've ever visited, all the emails you've sent and stories you've read online, all
the facts you've learned and fictions you've encountered and debunked. Think of
every relationship forged, every journey planned, every job found and every
dream born, nurtured and implemented through this platform. Consider too what
the lack of top-down control allows: the online scams, the bullying campaigns,
the hate group websites and the terrorist chat rooms. This is the Internet, the
world’s largest ungoverned space.
As this
space grows larger, our understanding of nearly every aspect of life will
change, from the minutiae of our daily lives to more fundamental questions about
identity, relationships and even our security. Through the power of technology,
age old obstacles to human interaction, like geography, language and limited
information, and a new wave of human creativity and potential is rising. Mass
adoption of the Internet is driving one of the most exciting social, cultural
and political transformations in history, and unlike earlier periods of change,
this time the efforts are fully global. Never before in history have so many
people, from so many places, had so much power at their fingertips. And while
this is hardly the first technological revolution in our history, it is the
first that will make it possible for almost everybody to own, develop and disseminate
real time content without having to rely on intermediaries.
And we've barely left the starting blocks.”
So this is
our Internet today- fascinating and enigmatic as it could ever be. But there
are magnificent surprises yet to come.
The Interspecies
Internet
Today, the
Internet is dominated by humans alone. This exciting new prospect is an effort
to include other species of our planet into this network. Animals are proved to
be conscious, emotional, intelligent and self-aware.
For example,
Dolphins were provided with an interface consisting of a few keys underwater.
Every keystroke would sound a distinct computer generated whistle which would
prompt and action such as giving them a ball to play with or maybe be food.
Now, the
dolphins weren't trained at all. They starting exploring this device and hitting
the keys. Soon enough, they were using this interface according to their needs
and moods.
Cool right? Check out this video:
The question
was how to communicate with other intelligent sentient species of our planet
sharing a common sensory environment with us which led to the birth of this
idea. After all, the Internet shouldn't be monopolized and restricted to one
species alone! The implementation of this idea will create an Internet must
richer in scope and content. Even the devices we use such as the mouse will be
rendered obsolete and those based on natural speech and gestures, replicating the way we
naturally communicate, will start to flourish.
Dr. Vint
Cerf who formulated the TCP/IP architecture and is regarded the Father of the
Internet is a key figure in this project. He is also involved in this another
amazing project called the Interplanetary Internet.
The
Interplanetary Internet is basically a conceived network in space, consisting
of set of network nodes which can communicate with each other at the speed of
light. In the Star Wars expanded universe, the Holonet functions much like an
interplanetary version of the Internet, with near instantaneous networking
between computing devices over long distances. It is a major source of news and
information, and is central to much of galactic culture and history.
This is an
operation between the Earth and Mars. The Interplanetary Internet is operating
on an international space station. It is a part of a space craft that is orbiting
around the sun having a path between these two planets. The ARPANET which originally
funded the development of the Internet is trying to realize this goal of
designing a space craft to get to the nearest star in a 100 years’ time.
Ultimately, all these ideas and efforts are in a direction establishing an efficient
communication with an alien community from another world. I can hardly wait to see how
this all unfolds..
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