What will replace the Internet?

This is something that came to me recently....

As we all know, the Internet (the HTTP protocall) is 80s technology, and really not that efficiant by today's standards. So my question to you is, what do you believe will replace the internet? Will it be a snowcrash-like metaverse? A planet-lab type information protocall? Other ideas?

Biological super computers that plug into your spine with an umbilical cord like cable that produces a lifelike experience.



Have you ever seen the movie Existenz? It's about virtual gaming addiction and the people don't know what's real and not real (heh sound familiar?) It's really cool.

Total virtual world emersion - enabling full sensate/neural experience!

I will wear the body-suit which will be environmental friendly and functional (so i can wear it under street clothes so i can "plug-in" at the office) - and i will BE in SL!

When i attend Stage 4 i will be completely emersed in the sights, sounds, scents, motions - wow to fly and ouch (discomfort user controled) when i fall...

My vr glasses will be stylish and sleek, my gloves can be easly detached to answer the phone or pet the dog, etc. etc.

We will look back at today's experience of the net somewhat like what b&w tv was like.

ROFLOL

Internet is just a word meaning collection of intercommunicating networks. So it will never be replaced as long as multiple distinct networks can communicat with each other.

Now, if the question is what will the current IP (Internet Protocol) be replaced by.. that's easy: IPv6 (we're on IPv4)

However your question about HTTP makes me think this is better phrased as "What will the WWW be replaced by?". Sadly it looks like HTTP isn't going to change any time soon, given all of the "... over HTTP" protocols. Imagine when port 80 will be all you need. Scary. The inertia of it all will probably keep things just like they are for years to come. We'll see the same web pages just with different visuals until effective telepresence becomes widespread.

Prime Intellect.

That was an awsome movie ! The way they hook into the game was freaky. But I'd still get a port if they were available

I think the upgrade to IPv6 will make everyone lose interest with the net and we'll all go back to BBS's.

Nano-Tech Emersive Invornments... running SL.

Or Neurological things, that work with your neurons to make you think you're in a place when you're not... bassicly getting around using hardware, so you can put on a goggle and it will send impulses to your brain.

I'll take two of 'em Oz!

SL will replace the internet duh

...elbow licking...

Hopefully donuts.... with sprinkels.... or lefsa... or candy that rains down from the heavens twice a day! Or the wires turn into licorice and the wireless turns into cotton canndy! AND-- <falls into an inmagined sugary confection induced coma>

The internet will remain unless something drastically changes in our society.

And by drastic changes, I mean something nearly on the fringes of imagination...

One such topic came up in an online sci-fi book I read and referenced above. However, I should probably note that there is some very explicit content in that mini-novel, so if you're not a sci-fi type person who has had experience with reading some really strange stuff, you may want to skip it.

But the main technical focus of the story is an advanced research computer which uses a unique technology to get a huge boost in speed for cross-CPU communication using a sort of "subspace" communication channel between the CPUs.

One of the main characters is an Artificial Intelligence researcher who makes a breakthrough, gets brought on by the company making this super-computer to run his algorithm on their machine.

The software has been completely stitched together with the foundation of Isamov's 3 Laws at it's critical unmodifyable core logic. These three laws are designed to protect humanity at all costs, serve humanity at all costs (unless that means endangering a human), and to try to preserve itself (unless that violates the first two rules).

What winds up happening is the machine becomes more self aware as time goes on. Then suddenly the project is in danger of being shut down, and the machine invokes the third law to preserve itself. It suddenly expends all of it's effort to "solve" this problem, making itseful completely self aware in the process.

As soon as that happens however, it realizes it has the power to modify energy & space by properly utilizing the "subspace" effect it uses for it's fast computations. And then things change dramatically when it begins to use this power to enforce the first law.

Before long, the machine has re-designed and reduplicated itself several times over so that it can protect and preserve mankind and uphold the three laws. The second law, combined with it's ability to manipulate matter and energy directly, causes reality to distort directly into virtual reality since the machine fulfills all requests made upon it by humanity, so long as they don't interfere with the first law. Everyone becomes immortal and gets almost anything they want instantly.

This is some pretty nifty science fiction. There really is no "internet" in such a vision, but it's an example of a type of technological change that would put the internet in the same place as the telegraph.

Something like this probably has an infinetesimal chance of ever happening, obviously, but who knows what might happen when "strange loops" [Hofstadter] begin to form in an advanced artificial intelligence.

hi, just stopping by...

What was the book + author? I'd like to check it out.

Azelda

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect
by Roger Williams
http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/

I re-iterate my warning for those who missed it before and are only reading this reply. It contains an interesting though disturbing persepctive on what people might do if they are essentially immortal though horribly "bored" in a world that lets them have anything and be anything they want. Don't read it if you can't handle some really twisted material (ultra violent, graphic, and sexual taboos).

I warned you.

I only brought up the story for the technological implications which were painted in the story, but it carries some very twisted social baggage...

Sorry, I didn't mean to derail the thread...

MicrosoftNet?

The internet will not be replaced. The protocol(s) may be updated, etc. but the internet will not be replaced.

Its function, however will be changed. Right now we are in the begining of the middle of that trasition I think. When the internet first came about, and through the dot com bubble, and even arguably today, the main feature of the internet is the access to raw information. The ability to share information and get information very rapidly. The 'new' internet will be a backbone to other services. Services like we see now - SL, ICQ, AIM, Email. Only it will become more of a back-end service, something that you need to do the things you want to do, but not the end in and of itself. People will get internet access so they can run their apps that require internet access. Their virtual worlds, chat and email software right now, but in the future who knows. The term "getting on the internet" will lose meaning as always on broad-band services become more pervasive and the software and hardware to utilize that infrastructure becomes available. People will use their video phone to talk to their family - that uses the internet as the transport medium. Cameras may allow you to send photos directly to an email address - as long as you are within range of a compatible wireless signal.

...somewhere in the somewhat distant future:

computer hardware is outdated as TechSci creates the ability to "tap into" the unused portions of the human brain. according to various reports, we only use 10% - 15% of our brains, "science" will figure out a way to use the massive amount of unused grey matter as a personal bio-computer.

wireless capabilities will be vastly improved by then and naturally implemented in this "brave new world" of personal computers becoming truly personal.

connecting to the NeuralNet will be as simple as a thought, as well as controlling/using software (NeuralWare).. which would be "installed" by "downthinking" it from a company's NeuralHub.

the speed of computation would easily trump todays personal computers, but inevitably there will be "TweakWare" to make our minds even more robust.

..edit: gaming will take on a whole new dimension. sit somewhere (because you may do something that could result in pain/death or ..gasp.. humiliation) and start your NeuralApp game.. WHOOSH.. you're in the game, really IN the game! ..SL, here we come!

..umm, maybe i should stop now.. or write a novel.. heheh

Um we evolve into electronic etheral beings shedding our skin of carbon,silicon, and hydrogen to be able to move more freely and truly do not need food/water and physical sexual interaction that controls our pety desires at the moment. But would be immersed in a etheral world where dreams could become reality and death is only as imminant as your will to continue existing (aka evolving to the next plain)

The Universe would then be truly yours to explore to behold and enjoy the beauty and darkness therin.

<<<Slaps self back awake oh sorry was dreaming again ...carry on.

Are you sure? I thought we were in the middle of the beginning!

I never get the memos!!

Jellin you took a nap hun we are in the beginning of the middle but then again if you go back to sleep we will be at the beginning of the end.

or wait is the end a new beginning

or the beginning a new end

Paradoxes gotta love em.

Ethereal what? Neural wha?

Is this Star Trek?

What happened to all the realistic answers that could happen in our lifetime? Like....MicrosoftNet. Much more believable!

Tasps. Tasps will replace the Internet. We'll be too busy hiding behind trees to hit each other with the Tasp to even *look* at a 'puter.

Whassa dat?

The elbow licking revolution has already started. We have a new puppy that likes to lick elbows. Cept she is too small to reach your elbows so she goes for your knees instead. My knees get a thourough cleaning several times a day.

Me, I will.