Prime Time: Cornerstone Technology: Internet

[Cris]

Discuss Internet Technology here.

[Cris]

Erik wrote:

I was updating my Firefox with the AdBlockPlus addon (v. 3.6.3 + the ABP addon has been voted the most secure surfing experience on the web) and happened upon this:

What is Mozilla?

We’re a global community of thousands who sincerely believe in the power of technology to enrich people’s lives.

We’re a public benefit organization dedicated not to making money but to improving the way people everywhere experience the Internet.

And we’re an open source software project whose code has been used as a platform for some of the Internet’s most innovative projects.

The common thread that runs throughout Mozilla is our belief that, as the most significant social and technological development of our time, the Internet is a public resource that must remain open and accessible to all. With this in mind, our efforts are ultimately driven by our mission of encouraging choice, innovation and opportunity online.

To achieve these goals, we use a highly transparent, extremely collaborative process that brings together thousands of dedicated volunteers around the world with our small staff of employees to coordinate the creation of products like the Firefox web browser. This process is supported by the Mozilla Corporation, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the non-profit Mozilla Foundation.

In the end, the Mozilla community, organization and technology is all focused on a single goal: making the Internet better for everyone.

This totally reminded me of the driving vision behind PIGN.

It almost seems as if Mozilla is the grand-daddy of PIGN.

Then I dug deeper and found this from (one of mine and Jennifer's and Sha's favorite authors):

The open source movement fascinating and it's one with muscle in the real world--enough muscle that Bill Gates and the music and film industries are scared witless by it. Free software (open source is merely the commercially-correct politically sanitized version of the term) addresses the key contradiction I mentioned earlier in the concept of "intellectual property"--it's free as in speech, not free as in beer. You can sell free software: the only thing you can't do with it is prevent people from copying it.

I think if legislators don't crush it the free software movement--which, incidentally, has its roots in the culture of scientific research and information sharing--will be one of the big industrial drivers of the next century. Forget software for a moment and think in terms of mature nanotechnology or biotechnology. Both these fields are distinguished from previous technologies in that they will work with self-replicating systems that can be programmed to produce end products. One can see the free software movement as a precursor for a "free hardware" or "free wetware" movement--one that will provide free libraries of designs for biological or nano-technological products that replicators can be programmed to churn out.

Just as I don't spend money on email clients or text editors when there are really good free ones available, why would I (for example) spend money on a sofa when there's a really good free template for one available on the web and I can grow it myself in my ACME Home Factory? Or even grow a GNU Free Factory in it, and stop paying ACME royalties?

The combination of techno-optimism and self-replicating technologies and free software for controlling those technologies is going to be explosive. Sometimes literally so.

Stross goes on to say:

The digital dark ages (of proprietary file formats and repressive copyright laws that have caused massive bit-rot to deprive future generations of any non-first-hand knowledge of the past).

It all points to the realism of PIGN. I think we have something really good here. And we made it together, Gille.

Erik
« Last Edit: Apr 3, 2010, 5:31pm by Erik »

[Cris]

Launa wrote:

With all this talk about AI and secure internet, I've found myself wondering about the Neon. I know when we talked about it before, the Neon was supposed to be cutting edge. An online nightclub/community seemingly run entirely by AI who provide a neutral space for all immortals and Humans. This community seems to fit perfectly in this new internet. Perhaps even be involved in its creation somehow? The system always seemed kinda cool and mysterious to me. I plan on using it in my work in the future and I guess I just wanted to pose this question to the brains of the forum: How would the Neon fit in this new world? When might the Neon launch? I find the evolution of the 'net being discussed here fascinating.

[Cris]

Olivia wrote:

It seems redundant. This statement to Summer and to Becky. Let me offer my humble opinion.

Summer, the lower case convention is so very dated and, some would argue, love, so very Apple. The e or the i (meaning electronic or internet) is somewhat redundant on a device that certainly nowadays and most completely by PT would be standard issue, even unheard of absent. I love Jennifer playing with the idea of a Kawasaki/Toyota merger since my stocks would skyrocket; perhaps one idea would be for a miracle to occur and suddenly we'd have Applesoft or MicroMac or something of the sort. Though equally interesting would be an idea such as both of these giants were toppled by a third company run by an AI construct that was a university thesis project of a circuit geek who programed a construct to be a combination of (Steve) Jobs, (Bill) Gates, (Jimmy) Wales (founder of Wikipedia), and (Sergey) Brin (co-founder of Google).

[Cris]

Erik wrote:

I've been toying with an idea for my stuff which is set in post-Prime Time but could begin earlier. How about this:

There's the Internet, the good ole school, pirate-ridden, virus-swarming world wide web... and then there's PIGN (said pigeon, like the bird) the Personal Intelligent Global Network. Of course, the I could stand for interchangeable, interactive, or intuitive, too.

The deal is: This great big AI force, backed with a bunch of Human pure hackers (not crackers, hackers), weave a new 'net so tight and self-governing that it categorizes everything -- even the bad stuff -- and keeps everything neat and tidy like an old school card catalog. But visual. And, you know, the internet. There are no flamers, no spam, no nothing unpleasant... unless you want to surf (or fly, as it's called) the flamer or spam categories.

PIGN forms a hardware arm, called COOP (Collective Open-source Operating Protocols, LLC) and release every kind of hardware under the sun, all of which interact and interconnect with the PIGN. So... to get the best use of your PIGN, the 'net tailored just for you... *trained* just for you... you use any gadget running COOP (the name of the company is also the name of the operating system). And since COOP is open-source, there's no hardware that doesn't run PIGN.

So, users can either continue to enjoy the hardware and software brand battles, or fly free with PIGN and COOP.

Olivia? You think your Jobs, Gates, Wales, Brin construct would like an idea with the tagline: You can always come home again... with PIGN. What do you think?

Erik

[Cris]

Jennifer wrote:

Olivia and Erik... I really, *really* love this idea. So, let me see if I get this right:

The old school "anything goes" internet (like we have right now) is still there but dangerous and full of identity thieves and porn and spam galore and viruses that eat your eye lids. And there was a big brand war that ended with a company called Applesoft being formed.

But then there's also a better, newer, slicker internet that automatically (with AI) categorizes all content according to various rules and filters what viewers see. And these filters are set by the user. So, for instance, if you hate ads or flamers or, say, mean people calling each other ugly names and using txt spk, you can filter that all away and just search for "how much meat does a Venus fly trap need" safely? Like, the new internet, called PIGN, is like a great, big, super smart Google... that I control the way it searches?

And the same people behind PIGN, created an OS called COOP that can function as an OS for any electronics -- bands, laptops, slates, computers in general.

I love this so much that I'd like to use it in "Elijah." It would actually really help me with a troublesome plot point.

Can we come up with a different name for the collective/company behind the whole thing other than repeating the OS name? Just to clarify for the readers?

Oh... and Cris? Share with everyone your idea for what PIGN hotspots would be called!

[Cris]

3.21.2010 at 7:26pm

Cris wrote:

I would like to propose that the PIGN hotspots be called ROOSTs (Remote Open Operational System Terminal) or ROSTs (Remote Operational System Terminal).

Summer wrote:

Eric, your PIGN idea is so perfect and I love Cris' addition of ROOST or ROST. Maybe Remote Operations System Terminal? I don't think we need the extra O in there.

So if ROST replaces the word hotspot, would you look for wifi (or hifi) if you wanted to log onto the old school internet and... skyfi if you wanted to log onto PIGN?

Summer


Olivia wrote:

On another topic, the fusion of Erik's far more intelligent ideas and my random brain firings, is brilliant. I also adore Cris' ROST and I want an idiot-free internet so very badly I'd be willing to support research into AI that takes over industries to get it.

[Cris]

EJ wrote

"Yet another under-appreciated bonus is the use of Kindle for Web surfing and e-mail. It's possible to use Gmail, for example, from the Kindle (the m.gmail.com mobile version works best). The experience is better on a full laptop, but some situations like a crowded airline bus, while walking down the street or in a restaurant might call for using a Kindle rather than a bigger device, such as a laptop, or a smaller device, like a cell phone." blogs.computerworld.com/amazons_k....e_telecommuters

It can surf the entire web. The Kindle 2 comes with free wireless 3G network, and you can surf the web anywhere with the 3G network coverage. The only limitation is that the browser on Kindle 2 is heavily text-based, and it won't be able to handle completed website with Javascript or Flash. So you can use it to browse Wikipedia, Google, or other text-heavy website, but not complicated ones.
answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090506230833AAVQbmj

[Cris]

In the SyFy show Caprica, both the Internet and VR can be accessed by touching a glowing glyph on a piece of paper.



Cris

[Cris]

3.24.2010 at 6:45pm

Alyson wrote:

Can I put a vote in for PIGN to launch now? The internet is so full of idiots sometimes I cringe anytime I have to type www.

Aly

[Cris]

4-3-10 Jennifer writes: Oh Erik, I've recently read the interview you're pulling from. It's excellent. But you know... though I couldn't agree more with Stross (who is indeed my fav right after Pickover) about how extremely Stephenson has lost his freaking way, Stross does have one "and then a miracle occurred" blindspot (and crutch?) in his writing...

"...Both these fields are distinguished from previous technologies in that they will work with self-replicating systems that can be programmed to produce end products. One can see the free software movement as a precursor for a "free hardware" or "free wetware" movement--one that will provide free libraries of designs for biological or nano-technological products that replicators can be programmed to churn out. Just as I don't spend money on email clients or text editors when there are really good free ones available, why would I (for example) spend money on a sofa when there's a really good free template for one available on the web and I can grow it myself in my ACME Home Factory? Or even grow a GNU Free Factory in it, and stop paying ACME royalties?"

I just don't see these happening. I mean... this hole was one of the small reasons why early on, transporters and powerful replicators (that don't require matter injections) were nixed from MG3K.

And interestingly enough, both Stross and Stephenson use them to huge plot advantage. Molecular assemblers
(called matter compilers by Stephenson, and, more creatively, cornucopia machines by Stross) just make some huge leaps in what is scientifically possible. Just from a layman's perspective, check this out:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_assembler

[Cris]

Apr 3, 2010 16:43:00 GMT -8 Jennifer said:

Oh Erik, I've recently read the interview you're pulling from. It's excellent. But you know... though I couldn't agree more with Stross (who is indeed my fav right after Pickover) about how extremely Stephenson has lost his freaking way, Stross does have one "and then a miracle occurred" blindspot (and crutch?) in his writing...

"...Both these fields are distinguished from previous technologies in that they will work with self-replicating systems that can be programmed to produce end products. One can see the free software movement as a precursor for a "free hardware" or "free wetware" movement--one that will provide free libraries of designs for biological or nano-technological products that replicators can be programmed to churn out. Just as I don't spend money on email clients or text editors when there are really good free ones available, why would I (for example) spend money on a sofa when there's a really good free template for one available on the web and I can grow it myself in my ACME Home Factory? Or even grow a GNU Free Factory in it, and stop paying ACME royalties?"

I just don't see these happening. I mean... this hole was one of the small reasons why early on, transporters and powerful replicators (that don't require matter injections) were nixed from MG3K.

And interestingly enough, both Stross and Stephenson use them to huge plot advantage. Molecular assemblers
(called matter compilers by Stephenson, and, more creatively, cornucopia machines by Stross) just make some huge leaps in what is scientifically possible. Just from a layman's perspective, check this out:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_assembler

I think matter compilers will be part of our world eventually, but the hurdle, to me, seems to be what will the original source material be? And how stable will it be? For example, if you want a sofa, you don't necessarily want it out of plant material if you're living in a jungle--the decay factor. "Oh, George, our sofa's growing its own tree..." but if you start with some kind of plastic, then I wonder if that won't just kill our world faster than we already are.

In terms of actual wetware, personally, I think there are some things you can buy generic and some things you can't. Spare body parts is not one of them. IMHO.

Erik--I love Mozilla! My favorite browser hands down. I don't think I remembered they were open source, but it certainly makes sense.

Cris