posted on Feb, 20 2005 @ 03:19 PM
The Internet cannot be 'banned' in any real way. The heart of the Internet is the Transmission Control Protocol, of which the Internet Protocol is
a subset. The acronym, TCP/IP is pretty well known. It was the Defense and Research Projects Agency (DARPA) which ordered engineers to build a
"computer network that cannot be destroyed by nuclear war". That's what the Internet is: A network that cannot be destroyed by outside means. If
there are one hundred servers and ninety-seven go dead, the other three will still be able to communicate. That's the Internet.
Any vulnerability in the Internet now is one of software. Recently there have been screw-ups with the DNS servers, one of which brought down large
regions for several hours but the Internet did not go down. It would take a very well-crafted DNS screw up to bring the Internet down. It would
take a conspiracy.
Actually, the main achilles heel of the internet is death-by-administration. If this happens (ISPs being regulated out of business, nationalized,
etc) then I would imagine that there would be a fracture of the Internet into smaller walled-off "nets". Also, if companies like AOL can continue
to refer to themselves as "The Internet" then I imagine their customers will continue to believe that.
What if if AOL 'partnered' with the government and citizens were allowed to have a free PC? That government could then control what sort of
Internet those free-PC citizens see. That'd be the best way to do it, IMO. Have some shill politician suggest this crazy plan where "your tax
dollars will buy you a PC!" He could play on people's increasing fears of 'identity theft' ...After all, whom would you trust with your identity
if not Uncle Sam? The trend toward firewalls and viruses will not abate in any way. It'll get ten-times worse. As a result, eventually the average
end-user of the PC will be happy to accept a Federally-Overseen-Internet the minute one comes with a free PC that the government repairs/secures for
them. Don't we have a Department of Transportation? I believe you'll soon also have Department of Personal Computing. If this happens, watch for
the free PCs. :^)