Comments on: Today on the radio: Do we deserve the Internet? http://it.gen.nz/2010/03/11/today-on-the-radio-do-we-deserve-the-internet/ Writings on technology and society from Wellington, New Zealand Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:56:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Lawrence D'Oliveiro http://it.gen.nz/2010/03/11/today-on-the-radio-do-we-deserve-the-internet/comment-page-1/#comment-17551 Lawrence D'Oliveiro Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:43:55 +0000 http://it.gen.nz/?p=864#comment-17551 I remember the cyberpunk euphoria of the mid-1990s, and John Gilmore’s famous “the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it”. It’s true governments have had a bit more success regulating the Internet than we might have expected. But on the other hand they haven’t had complete success, as those reports leaking out of Iran showed. What’s different about the Internet, as compared to any other communication medium like the telephone, the postal service, radio, TV or whatever, is that it alone puts the intelligence at the edges, instead of in the middle. That is what has made it so adaptable to a continual stream of new applications. I remember the cyberpunk euphoria of the mid-1990s, and John Gilmore’s famous “the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it”.

It’s true governments have had a bit more success regulating the Internet than we might have expected. But on the other hand they haven’t had complete success, as those reports leaking out of Iran showed.

What’s different about the Internet, as compared to any other communication medium like the telephone, the postal service, radio, TV or whatever, is that it alone puts the intelligence at the edges, instead of in the middle. That is what has made it so adaptable to a continual stream of new applications.

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