THE INTERNET
Of course, it’s easy to take the internet for granted and forget that it’s very much a work in progress.
So what forces are shaping it, how big has it grown, and will it ever evolve a mind of its own? To find out, New Scientist posed eight simple questions
1.
Who controls the internet?
The official answer is no one, but it is a half-truth that few swallow2
Could the net become self-aware?
In engineering terms, it is easy to see similarities between the human brain and the internet’s complex network of nodes, so could conciousness be the next step?
3
How big is the net?
In 2008, Google announced that its systems had registered a trillion unique pages – but even this might represent a fraction of what is out there
5
Is the net caught in the credit crunch?
Real-estate prices crashing, a big drop in growth, the threat of infrastructure collapse, and authorities printing more money to stave off disaster – that’s just the virtual world
6
Where are the net’s dark corners?
There are plenty of places online that you would do well to steer clear of: some could leave your computer infected with worms or viruses – then there are the “black holes”
7
Is the net hurting the environment?
Sending an email across the Atlantic Ocean does not burn any jet fuel, but the internet is not without its own, huge carbon footprint
8
Could we shut the net down?
When even the biggest cyber-attacks have failed to bring down the web, governments might not fare much better
Source : NS