[Fwd: Multiple Internets]

In an effort to re-seed discussion about cypherpunk topics I'll be reposting old threads from the cypherpunks list in a rough "this day in cpunks" effort. In this mail, John Young analyzes the subclasses of "the internet" as a user might see. Optional discussion questions: * How has this dichotomy survived the intervening half-decade? * Taxonomies sometimes afford conception of novel categories; the original periodic table was mostly empty, not-filled with elements yet to be discovered. What internets can we conceive of that do not presently exist? -------- Forwarded Message --------

From: John Young To: cypherpunks@al-qaeda.net Subject: Multiple Internets Date: Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:01:38 -0500 Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 7.1.0.9

...

i say again: twitter is ruining the internets...

I agree, but I think it's highlighting an underlying issue that we've been letting the wrong sort of people on the internet for a long time. I tend to think that if this type of people ends up sticking to the world of twitter and facebook and co, then we can safely caution them off and just ignore them at large, so for that purpose it works well

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Multiple, discrete internets are coming into play, perhaps have always existed.

First, the known internets, utilizing ubiquitious access logging which under guise of administration allows universal spying:

1. The internet run by operators of the overall background system which most users know little about or care.

2 The open policing apparatus of the overall system run by governments and their contractors and cooperating non-profits.

3. The commercial internet providing services or products for pay.

4. The non-profit, open-source, volunteer internet providing services or products at no cost or for donations.

5. The closed sub-internets, mil-gov classified, SCADA, restricted and special purpose networks used by operators and administrators of backbones, nodes, satellite, cable, wired and wireless systems,

Second, the unknown internets, with or without evident access logging:

6. The covert policing and spying internet which watches, logs, mucks around, runs stings, causes accidents and shut-downs, cuts cables, runs surprise tests and attacks, and keeps alive the demand for covert oversight of all the known others.

7. The covert internets which hide among all the others, or try to subject to discovery by 6.

8. The evanescent internets which are set up, used and disappear quickly, openly or covertly, subject to 6.

9. The wayward and waylaid internets which cannot be identified: rogues, experiments, mistakes, erratic systems, unexpected glitches and consequences, acts of nature, forgotten protocols, inept code, destructive code, lost access techniques, death of the perpetrators.

10. Internets of combinations, hybrids, deceptions, ploys and warfare among 1-9.

-- Sent from Ubuntu