{"id":31,"date":"2017-11-07T14:06:12","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T14:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.harvard.edu\/thinker670\/?p=31"},"modified":"2017-11-07T14:06:12","modified_gmt":"2017-11-07T14:06:12","slug":"the-internet-is-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/thinker670\/2017\/11\/07\/the-internet-is-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"The Internet is Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

The discussion with Professor Jonathan was one that was both intriguing and overwhelming. \u00a0It was intriguing in the sense that my attention was captured to record every detail of his story, but is was also overwhelming because I was trying to process those details. \u00a0Nonetheless, it was great to hear from him. \u00a0Instead of seeing the development of the Internet as a development of computer science, he told it in a way that was like a story, with \u2018protagonists\u2019 like Jon Postel and \u2018antagonists\u2019 such as Network Solutions, Inc (NSI). \u00a0Overall, it was a great class.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s post is not going to be long, but it is going to be centered around the main topic of the class: who runs the Internet? \u00a0It is such a powerful and omnipresent tool that whoever has control over it, they could be both extremely wealthy and powerful. \u00a0They would have the ability to control all our transactions online and what information gets to us. \u00a0Essentially, they can control how we live since almost everything is connected to the Internet in some sense. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is this fear of control that makes me happy to hear that the Internet is owned by no single entity. \u00a0It does make things difficult to repair and sue, but that is the beauty of it. \u00a0We all have the capability of contributing to it, putting up any content that we please. \u00a0Like Professor Jonathan said, it is \u201creally really weird that the Internet is not owned.\u201d \u00a0I argue that it is this weirdness that makes the Internet so powerful to the people. \u00a0However, this power appears to be fading.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was upsetting to hear that we are moving from decentralization to centralization. \u00a0Unfortunately, that seems to be the trend in ideas that first started out as \u201copen source.\u201d \u00a0Let us take a look at Bitcoin. \u00a0It started out decentralized, where no one can truly own the network because it will be competing against others and their computing power. \u00a0However, it is starting to get more centralized, where entities with massive amounts of computing power have the capability of exerting a huge amount of influence on the network. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This can also be seen with the way that we are starting to interact with the web. \u00a0Apps make it easy for us to utilize the Internet, but the content that we see on them is limited compared to a browser, where we can search for what we please. \u00a0In this case, the central authority is the creator of the app because they decide what information gets shown to us in their app. \u00a0We may have the physical freedom to break from it, but not the intellectual freedom to search for what we want. \u00a0Facebook has the ability to show us certain news from certain media stations. \u00a0This might appear good on the surface, but the implication of this is that what we get to see is \u201cfiltered.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, it is great to hear that the Internet is still owned by no one, but it is upsetting that we are moving away from that idea. \u00a0Companies and individuals are starting to have power over the Internet because of the services they provide to us. I am not in a position to state a full opinion on this because I do not truly understand the nuances of Internet governance, but I would argue for the \u2018net neutrality\u2019 of all content of the Internet. \u00a0I am aware that this would let in malicious information such as ISIS recruiting and black markets, but it is this freedom of content that makes the Internet so powerful. \u00a0As a curiosophile, the Internet is the tool that I use to answer my questions and attempt to provide a nuanced understanding of the topic. \u00a0I want to be able to search for what I want and know what I want, not what programmer feeds me. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The discussion with Professor Jonathan was one that was both intriguing and overwhelming. \u00a0It was intriguing in the sense that my attention was captured to record every detail of his story, but is was also overwhelming because I was trying to process those details. \u00a0Nonetheless, it was great to hear from him. \u00a0Instead of seeing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8865,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/thinker670\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/thinker670\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/thinker670\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/thinker670\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8865"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/thinker670\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/thinker670\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/thinker670\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/32"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/thinker670\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/thinker670\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/thinker670\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}