The Internet as a Scale-Free Infrastructure

The Internet that is free and open can be defined generally as a 'scale-free' network in which every node is essentially, virtually, connected to every other mode, and distance or size of the network makes no essential difference. The behavior of scale free networks tends overall to be very stable in terms of catastrophic systems failure. There appears to be a tendency for such systems to develop key nodal points, "super hubs," that connect a large proportion of all other nodes. There is thus a kind of "winner takes all" long term competition between points for enlarging their scale of network relations. At the same time, such super hubs become more susceptible to attack and failure, leading to critical break down of large areas or regions of the total network.

I think the key value in understanding the potency of this Global network is the realization that potentially any information of any kind or amount, is available to anyone, anywhere and anytime, in the world, at a moment's notice, and without great cost. On top of this, the digital information revolution is also a revolution of information storage, and increasing amounts of information are becoming increasingly available in smaller and smaller packages. The common CPU of today was the supercomputer of yesteryear, and eventually tomorrow's "palm-top" or note-book, or even cell phone, will become tomorrow's wireless super-computing communications center.

Though all the problems of human communication have not been solved, and many more problems appear in the offing, such as the Spam explosion, the central problem of a global Human communications infrastructure has been solved in a basic sense. This must be counted, categorically and unequivocally, as one of the most important technological achievements of human civilization of all time, alongside the wheel, fire, metallurgy and a few other choice inventions/discoveries like human flight, the atom bomb, etc.

The Wireless revolution I feel is the next important advance in this direction, at least as far as communications infrastructure is concerned. With advances in wireless technologies, especially with an enlargement of basic channel capacity and the improvement of the fidelity of signals over vast distances, the problem of distribution of networks will essentially cease to exist, and at the same time, the integration of systems in modular form will, with increased internalized differentiation, will increase as a consequence. We would in other words expect smaller machines that are inherently more versatile and functional and require both less space and less power to operate.

As it has been said, though the problem of communications networking has been solved, the problem of human communication is just opening up.