I suppose the day of the alternate internet is coming soon. With government regulation and ham-fisted legislation like SOPA increasing it is only a matter of time before a group of like-minded web designers figure out a way to make a network that is completely unregulatable. After all, it seems like the internet by design tends to go that way itself.

The Internet is indeed a culture and could be thought of as The
Electronic Society of the 21st century.  Every society has its whores
and the Internet will be exploited by the nefarious galvanic pimps
and johns just as they are on any city street.  We can count on the
electronic boulevards riddled with those who are double-dealing,
duplicitous, and treacherous, there is no reason to think humanity
has cleansed itself of the immoral even with thousands of years of
religions that have tried but obviously have tried in vain.  Human
nature is what it is. 

Thank you for you are right to remind us, gerard, of the dangers that
lurk on the ‘Net.  Electronic gargoyles are just waiting for the naive to
make a misstep in order to eat them alive.  This is a matter of electronic
feasting.  No need, though, to become paranoid, just must become more
alert to think things through and not become thralls to the merchants of
fear.  The only way I can think of to promote integrity to the highest
degree we can is to publish the names and the crimes of those who
commit them on the Internet as soon as they are verifiable.  But before
we do that we need to be sure a crime has been committed to insure our
own integrity.

There is not only the integrity of internet systems themselves that will have to
be protected.  If and as systems proliferate, the integrity of owners and
operators will become increasingly essential.  Nothing but the staunchest
integrity can prevent owners and operators (users) from “selling out” to
“surveillance” and/or commercial interests. This latter is already a problem, as
anyone who has been following the “WikiLeaks”
affair can reasonably assume.

One step further:  Not only “selling out” is a possible problem, but deliberate
sewing of the seeds of fear, suspicion, disention and rivalry raise their ugly
heads.  (I was floored the other day to learn that an acquaintance (who is an
“average” person—whatever that means)  was telling me that “WikiLeaks, and
Wikipidia and all that Wiki stuff” is evil.

So accurate information needs to be spread as quickly and widely as possible,
plus the dispelling of unwarranted and irrational fears of “the power of new
technological gadgets etc. etc.” so commonly exhibited whenever the subject of
the Internet comes up.  Of course those interested in capitalizing on the power
of fear are not going to be interested in a rational interpretation of Internet
capabilities and developments.  This leaves all of us who understand how all
kinds of fears are being promoted for all kinds of underhanded reasons—we
are the ones who will inherit this vital responsibility of supporting the integrity,
and interpreting the political significance of coming developments in
knowledge transference..  Are we prepared to take it on?

Re:  Project Byzantium, the “mesh network” will be the
instrument of freedom, thumbing its collective noses at repressive
governments. The project’s leader, TheDoctor, fears that some day
repressive measures could be put into place in the United States. 
While this might be a worry, it is not exactly an omnipresent fact…yet
and rationally speaking we have to keep it in mind that is it not a fact
even if not yet.  Well, maybe it is:  A recent attempt by Wisconsin
Big Brother politicians to search a professor’s e-mail.  It has to be
said in all fairness that those Wisconsin politicians are Republicans,
not Democrats and that needs to be said loud and clear.  And this is
the reason why all Republicans must be defeated in every election. 

However, on the point of this article, the “free-network movement” is a
new testament (non-biblical!) to the consciousness of the assault on
freedoms by those who would deny all people what is our human right. 

But…human rights do not include the right to lawlessness.  For a society
to persist in a civilized way, laws are created to stop criminals, so we
have to decide as a whole society, all 310+ million of us, exactly what
is and is not criminal, right down to the nitty gritty.  That is not an easy
thing to do in a society of 310+ million people of a variety of ethnic
values.  One size does not always fit all.  How should we go about having
an egalitarian society?

The advent of the ubiquitous global communications connection and
exchange system that uses a protocol of electronic signals sent and
received by and to recognizable specific numerically assigned addresses
over an electronic sensitive wire or via radio or micro waves and is a
construction of modern information systems will have a permanent
impact on establishing freedom for the human inhabitants of this world. 
It is exponentially explosive in number of users.  Since it is a collection
of an infinite number of privately structured and maintained networks,
infinite meaning new ones may be created at any time, there is no way to
stop the number who want to use it.  The Internet is not “owned” by
anyone.

Analytically, it will become impossible for governments anywhere to
supress internet access since towers needed for transmission to and
from other internet senders can be portable and set up and taken down
as needed to avoid suppressive government detection.

Thanks for this article and similar follow-ups on preserving free internet and
protections from “surveillance”, censorship, and limits to access.  This may be
the most important “battle” of the 21st Century.  Defending Assange and Manning
are only the beginning.