Coming soon: superfast internet (The Grid)

Coming soon: superfast internet (The Grid)

www.timesonline.co.uk

THE internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.

At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
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[edit on 4/5/2008 by biggie smalls]

This sounds pretty amazing. 10,000 times faster than broadband! That's incomprehensible. That is even faster than the jump from dialup to cable. Sounds amazing!

The new technology is called "the grid":

The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

Holographic technology is certainly fascinating and groundbreaking, but the potential for abuse in this situation is much great with that kind of power.

This makes me think that Dark Knight's prediction can be even more possible. Too many things have led me to believe he may be onto something truthful...Not to mention Project Blue Beam.

David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies could “revolutionise” society. “With this kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine,” he said.

The power of the grid will become apparent this summer after what scientists at Cern have termed their “red button” day - the switching-on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the new particle accelerator built to probe the origin of the universe. The grid will be activated at the same time to capture the data it generates.

The scientists at Cern could blow up the entire universe on the same day the grid is turned on, making the technology essentially useless . Great thinking people .

Why stop at the destruction of the planet when we can destroy the entire creation?

The grid has been built with dedicated fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated components to slow the deluge of data. The 55,000 servers already installed are expected to rise to 200,000 within the next two years.

Professor Tony Doyle, technical director of the grid project, said: “We need so much processing power, there would even be an issue about getting enough electricity to run the computers if they were all at Cern. The only answer was a new network powerful enough to send the data instantly to research centres in other countries.”

Cern needs a ridiculous amount of space to store all their data and the people involved were worried about collapsing the internet with their information.

The grid was created to solve such a problem.




www.timesonline.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Broadband is fine for me. I despise the "more" mentality.

Yet again, good thread!

[edit on 2008/4/5 by SteveR]

reply to post by SteveR


The "more" mentality is perpetuated by your hatred of it.

I find it somewhat surprising that you are ignoring the fact that people will go to the opposite of what you feel is realistically viable just because they feel like it.

Sure is a jump from 56k
No more laggy games and days of torrents downloading I guess. Though seriously, who really needs it that fast? Maybe Governments, Universities, etc could use it... but the average person? They'll convince that you need it all the same!

reply to post by SteveR



I agree it does seem quite ridiculous for civilians, but its not intended for our uses . The military will love this to continue their wars and universities will enjoy this on their quest for knowledge.

I'm sure ATS could use some extra storage space as well. I doubt Springer/Skeptic would mind this news eh


reply to post by Throbber


The grid is only being built out of necessity, not want. Steve is happy with his current internet speed, and that is fine. I personally wouldn't mind a faster connection because after I got used to a cable modem, using satellite internet is frustrating (at least twice as slow). I can remember the 56K days when I had to use AOL to get on the internet because I didn't know anything about computers (well next to nothing).

I really don't see how his hatred of more has anything to do with this thread. Thanks though.

[edit on 4/5/2008 by biggie smalls]

reply to post by newworldorder


The grid's purpose is to ensure Cern does not overload the entire internet. The amount of data that the machine will be archiving will be the largest ever. I don't think the scientists studying Cern are going to have any idea what is going on there, let alone the average Joe .

I just hope the public is allowed access to their discoveries.

reply to post by biggie smalls


I wasn't speaking of his own, individual hatred/aversion, but the hatred/aversion that is shown in the actions of numerous individuals as well as steve's.

The sheep will follow the bigger crowd, unless the other guy is handing out sugar drops.

reply to post by Throbber


First, money is what perpetuates it. I don't give in to that. Second, I have no idea what you are speaking about either. Oh well.

reply to post by SteveR


First; It is greed that drives people to love money, so therefore it is a problem that lies within the individual as well as the structure of what we call society.

You cannot affect one thing without affecting another - this is true in science as well as society.

Second; I'm trying to explain to you why voicing such a proactive opinion on the matter may be detrimental to what you believe is the proper way of approaching the problem, if indeed it is a problem.

Originally posted by Throbber
First; It is greed that drives people to love money, so therefore it is a problem that lies within the individual as well as the structure of what we call society.

I think the issue is people loving 'more' and never allowing themselves to feel content with something they initially enjoy until their attention is grabbed yet again. It's endless, and more materialistic than a love of money. The ones who love money are the ones making not buying.

Second; I'm trying to explain to you why voicing such a proactive opinion on the matter may be detrimental to what you believe is the proper way of approaching the problem, if indeed it is a problem.

Perhaps you can explain to us all why that is.

Hatred is a strong word, friend.


If the ones who love money are the ones making instead of buying, perhaps there are a few out there who believe they're providing a service to the community - in this case the Icommunity or whatever you could want to call it - are more interested in simply expanding on current technology in the public domain.

It is difficult to make reasonable judgements on those whose motives are not openly apparent.

Based on the links you provide, it seems that CERN and others have been working on this Grid since at least 2000. That's about 500 years in internet time, so by the time this thing goes on line, it ought to be the eighth wonder of the world.

One of the articles says that it might be possible for some students and other academics to log on when it gets powered up.

I wonder how long it will take for this to reach the average consumer who isn't affiliated with a school or research center?

[edit on 2008/4/5 by GradyPhilpott]

I don't know what all of this 'more' stuff is. If someone was content with what they had, why not go back to 56k?

Anyway, if this 'grid' is all that is says it is, it will make my work so much easier. As it stands, my company's video conferencing system has massive bandwidth requirements, and is in constant use.

For larger companies, this will make inter-office communication much faster, and easier. I love it.

Originally posted by Throbber
Hatred is a strong word, friend.

Sure.. if I recall, the word I used was 'despise'. You are correct with the service comment.. every one thinks they're doing a good turn.

Raso, I was never content with 56k.

[edit on 2008/4/5 by SteveR]

reply to post by GradyPhilpott


I'd say 10 years for western countries, more for the rest ... and some will never see it coming .

With the HD coming that's what is required to not freeze the network.

I cannot wait for 3D tv Ooh w€€€€!

I only get 21.6K. It's the only thing that I can get unless I go to satellite for about $80/month. You people just don't know how lucky you are with the high speed.

so how fast is this "the grid" in terms of Mbps?
here's some old news for all you folks though.

Single Stream Class: 272,400 terabit-meters per second by a team consisting of members from the University of Tokyo, the WIDE Project, NTT Communications, and others accomplished by transferring 585 gigabytes of data across 30,000 kilometers of network in about 30 minutes at an average rate of 9.08 gigabits per second.

Internet2 Land Speed Record
(IPv6 Category)

Internet2

There are a couple of different intranets working of which this will be one of.

This is just an expansion of the plan several years ago for a university based internet with very limited access to the "regular" internet and no access for the average folk.

As for speed, it can only go so fast, limited only by physics and the software.

I am always excited by new technology and can envision a time when it will integrate seemlessly into our daily lives. The ability to move extremely large amounts of info at the speed of light opens up an entire realm of possiblities.

At the same time it is the dual edged sword of "progress" dragging our less than perfect people along. Who is going to control this info?? Centralized info processing allows for centralized control and manipulation.

I guess I am just going to have to get used to big brother in my business after all it's not like he isn't in my business already! More dystopia please.