Final EOC: The future of the internet

The future of any technology, especially the internet can be considered in its own right a work of speculation and science fiction destined to become science fact. Even in its infancy, no one, not even the founders and those truly gifted innovators knew what the present state of the internet would be. It continues to surprise us, and I believe always will as new minds continue to explore and discover new ways to put the wonders of the internet to use.
The future is uncertain. Some people believe that we are nearing the end of where our current technology can take us, that there are limits to what we can accomplish in this digital age. “We know even now that we are at some fundamental limits of what the Internet can handle, we have one big expectation—being able to innovate, and it is unclear whether we will be able to do that.” (Scientific American). In any stage of evolution, the organism, in this case the internet, must push itself past certain barriers to reach the next stage in its life cycle. If there truly are limits that we are already beginning to see to the internet’s growth potential, then innovation is the only way to pass this particular barrier until the driving technology behind the internet catches up to the way it is being used. Hence, innovation.
Very unfortunately, the internet seems to be going through its teenage, dramatic years that most people remember from high school in either loved or hated tones. The various companies and elements that own and control the internet seem to be changing the general tone that has made the internet the melting pot community it has become, now dividing it into strange clicks and clandestine factions, vying for control of virtual territory. “Fifteen years after its first manifestation as a global, unifying network, it has entered its second phase: it appears to be balkanising, torn apart by three separate, but related forces.” (The Economist). The forces referred to are Governments, large IT companies, and separate nationalities. Whatever the real future is, it’s one split up into sadly restricted segments that lack the freedom most enthusiasts swear by.
In the book “Future Shock,” by Alvin Toffler, he theorizes that people of the future will suffer from the incredibly fast change in technology, leaving them “future shocked” and disconnected. I see truth in this, though not the only truth. The internet, unless it suffers some massive change in the near future, is poised to almost literally take over people’s lives through unprecedented integration. Not unlike “Future Shock,” I see people becoming too involved in the internet and its web of interactive experiences, and forsaking the tangible experience of real life. Is this a future shock? In a way yes. Life is not simply a virtual ride. It is a real, visceral, tangible experience that needs to go beyond the virtual reality worlds and escapist theologies that guide much of modern life. Get out and experience it. Go beyond the virtual and get into the real.