Internet will subsume all other networks

What started as a text-only information exchange is now used to channel a bewildering array of media, replacing or incorporating old networks along the way. After text came pictures, then audio, then real-time voice, then video, and now HD video streaming. In addition to providing the biggest information storage capability ever devised.

I think that the main reason why this network is has obsoleted many networks (Minitel), assimilated many others and is about to subsume the rest (including phone and TV), is because of its layered and open architecture. The layers ensure that low-level hardware details can be abstracted into the same high-level communication framework, thereby enlarging the Internet physically. The widely-available documentation of the protocols at each layer ensured that other networks can be attached to the Internet by implementing suitable gateways for each external network, furthering the informational and functional reach of the Internet. And most importantly, the documented protocols enable individual programmers around the world to independently create applications that reside on this network with a guarantee that inter-communication will indeed happen.

The Internet seems to have done so well as to acquire a life of its own. At the very least, it has become vital to humanity in its business, leisure and social lives. I expect future historians to speak of the emergence of the Internet (centered around the year 2000) as a defining moment in the "evolution" of human society. But beyond this even, one sometimes gets the feeling that a portion of humanity has become devoted to "feeding" this network with ever-growing amounts of information. For what purpose? To store and share and "nurture" this information, because that's what the Internet does so well.

Such success came at a price. More than ever before, many forces are trying to control and forcibly shape the Internet today. Not all these forces have information sharing as one of their core values. Spam, net snooping, net bias (the opposite of net neutrality), even the ad-based model, these are examples of phenomena that are at odds with the original principles of the Internet, although they are hardly surprising given the fact that the Internet has reached all sectors of human society with respects to all domains of interest. And as we well know, the situation on physical Earth isn't exactly rosy these days - or these millennia for that matter.

So the question is: Will the Internet survive the present onslaught of reality? Being optimistic myself, I believe so and I predict - as many have done before me - that soon all forms of media will be delivered through the Internet. By that time, we will have created much more reliable means of data storage and retrieval - today's cloud computing being the seed of that particular tree. I imagine a belt of satellites hosting the servers that are tended to by robots, constantly beaming information onto Earth (and receiving information from it). Our appliances will all be connected, engaging in n-way communications with other appliances through the Internet. Take a look at this demo for a glimpse of this future.

It's not necessarily good or bad, since it will depend on what we as moral decision makers make of it, but it sure will guarantee more busy-ness for the IT industry for years to come!