Internet Zero - When Things Start to Think

[sm666]

I came accross this new talk that was done on cspan by Neil Gershenfeld from MIT, he's done some other things for Ted, but this got a lot more in detail.

rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/digital/digitalfuture032805.rm?start=:03.6

Neil Gershenfeld, director of the Center for Bits and Atoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Gershenfeld is the author of "When Things Start to Think." His new concept Internet Zero (0) proposes a new infrastructure for the existing Internet that would give an IP address to all electronic devices - from light bulbs to Internet addresses and URLs - and interconnect them directly, thereby eliminating much intermediating code and server technology. His topic is "From the Library of Information to the Library of Things."

[AlphaQ]

The next generation internet will be like switching from horse and buggy to the internal combustion engine. As amazing as things are today with information technology, it will look quite privative in within a few decades.

Look at cell phones for example. 15 years ago the only option they had was send and receive calls. Now you have GPS, full internet, voice recognition, cameras, etc. Not to mention they are all much smaller than the bricks we used to carry around.

The downside to such a cyber-infrastructure is hacking and identity theft. But if quantum cryptology technology advances, there will literally be no reason to fear hackers.

[ThePhantom]

I think a fully connected world would be awesome, but there would have to be some way to revert back to a less technologically-dependent world in case of a catastrophe. Actually, we can't even do that now, so I guess there's no harm in pushing this as far as we can go. But a lightbulb with an IP address? That's crazy.

[sm666]

Originally Posted by ThePhantom

I think a fully connected world would be awesome, but there would have to be some way to revert back to a less technologically-dependent world in case of a catastrophe. Actually, we can't even do that now, so I guess there's no harm in pushing this as far as we can go. But a lightbulb with an IP address? That's crazy.

It's kind of a neat concept, in practice you could have a light switch in China that controlled a light in the US, lol. Really, all it's doing is what the internet originally did. Take a bunch of unconnected systems and paste them together with an end to end protocol so the middle doesn't matter (like IP), except this can be done on any medium.

There is one point where they show/talk about an 8 year old in Ghana, Africa that was able to design and make an IC, and different sensors using this kind of technology. Emailing the design for a product you make instead of buying the actual product. I think if things like this come to fruition the way they speak of some really amazing products will probably be made that would otherwise never exist.

[NeOmega]

As beneficial as it may be to have (almost literally) everything at your fingertips, there MUST be some kind of system to prevent all the things that could possibly go wrong when that kind of power is in the hands of your average Joe.

More possibilities = more power = more responsibility.

[CosmicSerpent]

It's kind of scary to think where technology might be headed in the near future. It's like eventually it will just defeat the point of human existence. What if one day the internet is so complex and powerful that it crosses the line from machine to sentient being? It doesn't seem that far-fetched: A constantly expanding network made up of interconnected systems of computational processes and stored information that is capable of maintaining and organizing itself. Doesn't seem all that different from a human brain, does it?

[Evilpig]

Sounds like an awesome idea, but enough movies can scare me away from that

[BAKED]

Originally Posted by CosmicSerpent

It's kind of scary to think where technology might be headed in the near future. It's like eventually it will just defeat the point of human existence. What if one day the internet is so complex and powerful that it crosses the line from machine to sentient being? It doesn't seem that far-fetched: A constantly expanding network made up of interconnected systems of computational processes and stored information that is capable of maintaining and organizing itself. Doesn't seem all that different from a human brain, does it?

And thats what scares me.

A thinking human brain that has the power to control anything and everything. It will eventually start acting on its own. A all-powerful sentiment being that has the power to control everything. Wow. I can see it now. It seems like a corny movie, but the possibilities are all too real.

Only difference is I see no solution, no Will Smith to swoop in and save the day.

If this truely happens, what happens when this being experiecnes greed?

That is the day that the shit really hits the fan.


But thats just another apocalypse theory. Dont worry about it