digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover and share the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

10 Ways the Internet (As We Know It) Will Die

gigaom.com — We often think of the Internet as a platform for unfettered global communication, where information flows freely, innovators can launch new applications at will, and everyone can have a voice. But it ’s unlikely that our children’s Internet will look anything like what we have now.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • youtellme8, on 04/06/2008, -15/+2I fear a world-wide hostage crisis of everyone if someone can control the internet. They could make absolutely ridiculous demands and we would have to comply.
    • soulpiercer7, on 04/07/2008, -2/+4we will run out of IP addresses. IP version 4 will destroy the internet. without the world upgrading to Ip version 6, the internet will fall apart.
      http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3605 ...
      • dagnome1984, on 04/07/2008, -2/+1One thing already solved that problem long ago called NAT.
        • yugiohdan6, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1if ISPs added NAT routers to their network a good chink of online gaming would not work... and then there's VOIP...
          Just think of how many ports you have to open for various games/applications...
          Now imagine not being able to do that at all
    • grinndaddy, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1Please, this is Digg. Don't bother us with your opinions. Don't you know we fall under #4? If we don't agree with you, you're wrong.
  • tehbored, on 04/06/2008, -4/+76For the last ***** time, the LHC will NOT kill us all!
    • junkwheel, on 04/06/2008, -20/+5Of course it won't!

      Because we have a complete and thorough understanding of black holes! It's not like they render all current scientific theory completely useless at the singularity!
      • 4d669, on 04/06/2008, -0/+7If you want to be pretentious on the internet, stick to real books instead of wikipedia articles and google searches. When you read a bit on the subject you'll wish you could erase comments.
        • metalclay, on 04/06/2008, -0/+4Conan O'Brien: ASS Stamp =)
        • junkwheel, on 04/06/2008, -4/+1I'm hardly likely to take advice from somebody who gives such *****-sure advice to people they don't know.

          I was being sarcastic.

          For your information, you can contact Digg to have your comments deleted.
          • Whackly, on 04/06/2008, -1/+3Actually, you were being ironic.
            How do you know you can have comments removed? Done it? Seems to me the only reason to have a comment removed is to:
            1 avoid admitting your comment was wrong.
            2 avoid looking like an idiot; even someplace as pointless and anonymous as a digg comment.
            If you are uncomfortable with the 1st you will have a hard life.
            If you are uncomfortable with the 2nd you shouldn't use the internet.
          • junkwheel, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1Because I, uh, read about it?

            But thanks for the life advice in someplace as pointless as a digg comment.
          • Whackly, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1Pissy much?
      • geobay, on 04/06/2008, -1/+9Much higher energy collisions occur in the upper atmosphere on an ongoing basis. The black hole issue is just fear mongering by people with little to no physics education.
        • junkwheel, on 04/06/2008, -0/+1And if the worst comes to the worst, Hawking Radiation will save us all in an instant. Phew!
        • CarStan, on 04/06/2008, -0/+1The guy invent black holes in the first place, its the least he can do
      • hayashi, on 04/06/2008, -0/+1And you have a complete and thorough understanding that it will happen? What's your point.
        • matrixbandit, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1His point is that his lack of understanding is more important than our lack of understanding.
    • sarge96, on 04/06/2008, -1/+8Neither will any of this stuff, except maybe the net-neutrality one. At least in the near future.
    • Whackly, on 04/06/2008, -3/+3I hope not. Good luck exchanging it for wobbly cd rack and some rancid meatballs If you're dead.
      • arobicha, on 04/06/2008, -1/+1What does the Swedish corporation Ikea have to do with an international scientific project of ground-breaking inovation based out of Switzerland?
        • adrianmonk, on 04/07/2008, -1/+1Nothing, but those meatballs *are* truly nasty.
        • Moby22, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1Please proceed directly to your local video store and rent the entire Futurama series.
        • Whackly, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1I didn't say name Ikea in my comment. This leads me to believe that you either immediately associate Ikea with wobbly cd racks and rancid meatballs OR that you have seen Futurama episode in which Professor Farnsworth's supercollider superexploded.
    • soulpiercer7, on 04/07/2008, -8/+2we will run out of IP addresses. IP version 4 will destroy the internet. without the world upgrading to Ip version 6, the internet will fall apart.
      http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3605 ...
    • Spoomeister, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1It won't be the last ***** time for another 2 months. Then, when the LHC is online, it really WILL be the last time.
    • DifferentAngle, on 04/07/2008, -0/+0The nice thing about that position is that no one cares if you're wrong. ;)

      just sayin
    • junkwheel, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1So just to clarify, WE WILL ALL DIE.
  • diggafrica, on 04/06/2008, -14/+5ffs! . had to try 4 times just for Digg to post my damn comment! wtf Kevin! wtf!
  • icemorebutts, on 04/06/2008, -65/+7as long as i can post anything without retribution the internet as i know it will never die...

    ***** THE JEWS, *****, AND CHINKS!
  • dkraneveldt, on 04/06/2008, -12/+4internet is like a form of energy
    it cannot be destroyed
    • cvxdes1, on 04/06/2008, -6/+4You contradict yourself, if it's like a form of energy, it can't be created either.
      Try telling that to Al Gore.
      • ultrafez, on 04/06/2008, -0/+4Alright then bozo, light is a kind of energy, therefore it can't be destroyed - and by your logic it can't be created either. So how come we have it then? It depends on your interpretation of the word "create": energy can't be created, but it can be converted from form to form.
        • HonoredMule, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1Well in that case, I await the internet's conversion into the form of the 6th Reich. Good thing it doesn't get destroyed.
      • followerOChrist, on 04/06/2008, -1/+0Didn't Al Gore invent the internet? Thats what he told me at least...
        • Nanobe, on 04/06/2008, -0/+2He was misquoted. He never claimed to have invented either the Internet or the Web. In truth, he was instrumental in organizing the efforts to create the Web, and people like Tim Burners-Lee (the actual inventor of the Web) and Marc Andreessen (the inventor of the first popular web browser) have credited Al Gore for his work in getting the whole thing going.
        • ICSU, on 04/06/2008, -0/+1And then you woke up in your mom's basement...
  • nationalist, on 04/06/2008, -3/+22forgot no.11...the SUPER-MEME!!!
    • CarStan, on 04/06/2008, -1/+14like this Giant Enemy Chuck Norris, doing OVER 9000 Barrel rolls while singing 'Never gonna give you up', the 4chan scientists are currently working on?
      • Yuska, on 04/06/2008, -2/+10I, for one, welcome our new Giant Enemy Church Norris overlords.
        As long as he doesn't steal mah bukket, anyway.
        • grimward, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1Or sing that numa numa song.. again.
    • soulpiercer7, on 04/07/2008, -5/+1we will run out of IP addresses. IP version 4 will destroy the internet. without the world upgrading to Ip version 6, the internet will fall apart.
      http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3605 ...
  • suo97119, on 04/06/2008, -4/+20John Connor?
  • lndmn01, on 04/06/2008, -10/+2What about the HLC? It could kill us all!
    • jstowell, on 04/06/2008, -0/+3Ya, we should worry about that, but maybe put that just below the LHC.

      Burried
  • Hockey13, on 04/06/2008, -9/+2611. Y2k
    • cvxdes1, on 04/06/2008, -1/+91999 called, they want their scare tactic back.
      • daborg, on 04/14/2008, -0/+1Next time they call, patch me through. I'd like to tell myself some winning lottery numbers.
    • desuexmachina, on 04/06/2008, -1/+10Man, I loved Y2K. We made a boatload of money patching up old servers, our crazy friends hoarded massive amounts of loot and we had a great party on New Years Eve. When it was over, we went to our friend's hide-away and drank all their hoarded booze. Good times man. We should do it again.
      • desertDenizen, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1Y10K & Aubrey de Grey. See you there.
  • brainboy77, on 04/06/2008, -10/+4i guess i'm too young for this but what was netscape exactly? was it like an internet browser like Aol (what happened to AOL?)?
    • mooseontheloose, on 04/06/2008, -1/+11it's like a scape... but for nets
    • manitoba98xp, on 04/06/2008, -0/+7AOL is an Internet Service Provider, not a browser (though their client software does act as a browser, it's essentially IE). Netscape was originally a web browser, and arguably the most popular one. It enjoyed significant success, but mostly died when Microsoft began bundling Internet Explorer with Windows. Netscape was eventually picked up by AOL, and the code was later released as open-source: this was the genesis of the Mozilla Foundation, and eventually, the now-popular Firefox web browser. The Netscape browser was only recently officially killed off. Though the Netscape brand continues to exist, it's currently pretty much an AOL web portal ( http://netscape.aol.com/ ).
    • bratterscain, on 04/06/2008, -0/+2RIP Netscape. You were the birther of my gateway to por.....ugh, freedom.
  • JanYpe, on 04/06/2008, -7/+119Reason #11: The Internet will finally buckle under the weight of crap articles like this.
    • bullsfan03, on 04/06/2008, -1/+5Zing?
    • PURPLEDRINK, on 04/06/2008, -0/+4idk... i'm pretty sure this author took CS III. Just take a look at any one of these gems here, like no. 3, someone could just start to cut all the cables and the internet would like die!

      (lol wow, TCP/IP (teh internet) = designed to withstand attacks from WMDs).
    • sgtpppr, on 04/07/2008, -0/+5Yeah, this article is some serious chicken little worrying. I'm not sure why they didn't add meteors, alien attacks, jeff goldblum uploading a virus, or angelina jolie's ex-husband hacking the gibson.
  • lead2thehead, on 04/06/2008, -6/+1So basically what they're saying is... the internet will evolve over time? Yeah. Thanks for that guys.
  • Kristijan12, on 04/06/2008, -2/+0No, no!
    Just put draconic sentences, and then we will see how long all bad things jeopardizing today's form of Internet will last!
  • dropoutfilms, on 04/06/2008, -6/+7This list is bunk, in that it downplays the biggest threat to the internet, which is that corporations are desperately trying to take over the internet, like they took over printing presses, radio and television...
    • Daedalus17, on 04/06/2008, -0/+2"This list is bunk, in that it downplays the biggest threat to the internet, which is that [governments] are desperately trying to take over the internet, like they took over printing presses, radio and television..."

      There I fixed that for you. Or did you think the FCC was a private company?
      • Suricou, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1You are both right. Governments want to take it over for power, corporations want to take it over for profit.
    • jetsetter883, on 04/06/2008, -2/+1i think he's talking about advertising .
    • bdbr, on 04/06/2008, -0/+4A lot of the article was about that: lawyers, loss of net neutrality, and the final observation: "The Internet has already morphed from its initial aspirations of open academia to a commercial platform controlled by corporations and carriers."
  • cnot3, on 04/06/2008, -5/+22What if the tubes get clogged?
    • cvxdes1, on 04/06/2008, -2/+0They'll invent OTC internet claritin.
    • Veni_Vidi_Vici, on 04/06/2008, -0/+7We'll just have to buy more trucks to dump the clogs on.
  • ligyron, on 04/06/2008, -5/+2He must be a fun guy to hang out with....
  • kenvsryu, on 04/06/2008, -2/+10wtf the digg is broked
  • jbfdiggs, on 04/06/2008, -1/+5Internet is free. If it dies, the only reason behind is our finding of a new better medium to communicate.
    • collide007, on 04/06/2008, -1/+1It's not free, far from it. Consumers pay monthly subscriptions in some form or another, websites pay for hosting, and the people that provide this stuff pay for the equipment to provide. Nothing is free, nothing, not even water. Even if it isn't money we are paying, we still pay in some way or another.
      • complainforever, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1You sound female. If you are female, I think I could love you. What'da ya think?
  • Demq, on 04/06/2008, -1/+3# 11 we'll just move on to Internet 2.
    • kitsune616, on 04/06/2008, -3/+1So is that just like Internet 1 only with a bunch of features that have been around since the beginning and rounded corners?
    • beautifulbeast, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1That's scary: the Internet 2 was a project by Microsoft in the 90's consisting in developing a second Internet with "Premium" content where everything would be pay-per-view. No kidding. I'm happy it never became real.
  • junkwheel, on 04/06/2008, -6/+1I'm more worried about HRC.
  • cvxdes1, on 04/06/2008, -1/+1All that already happened, except for the first and last ones..
  • revjustin2, on 04/06/2008, -3/+28what a crappy "article". I was hoping it would be some kind of window into all the cool things the internet could become, Instead, I got another ***** top 10 list that counts all the ways the internet will get ***** up. They couldn't even think of a decent 10. That last one is pretty lame. Buried for lameness.
  • Erythroxylum, on 04/06/2008, -5/+4I think of the internet as an entity which was created by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as a tool to help smack the Reds about, and which now is used as a means for people to look at any flavour of pornography they want, play games against jerks, and as a forum for queer, U2-listening, graphic designers/Mac enthusiasts to congregate and shoot the breeze.
    I don't care what my eight children's internet will look like. They won't have time to use it after working all the hours god sends down my uranium mines. And if they do pipe up, 'Daddy, I've got a new tumour. And it's bleeding,' I'll just flush them out of the airlock. *****, I can always have more.
    • bratterscain, on 04/06/2008, -1/+1lolwut?
    • complainforever, on 04/07/2008, -0/+0I think I just found the definition of low life weird
  • almightyzam, on 04/06/2008, -3/+5Of course the internets will die...The big dump truck will eventually run out of gas, and the tubes will rust up and leak all over the place!
  • theAlice, on 04/06/2008, -2/+2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

    Wikileaks claim in that article is *****: it still had thirty mirrors in multiple countries after the California site went down.
    • renegadeafk, on 04/06/2008, -1/+1I'm pretty sure that' already been patched.
      • zwaldowski, on 04/06/2008, -0/+4I'm sorry, can you read? Y2K38 is not a software problem. Since Unix-like systems render times and dates (e.g., timestamps and system clocks) as seconds relative to the Unix epoch point (1 Jan 1970), 19 Jan 2038 would bring around a time where 32-bit processors can't store the number anymore. 64-bit processors fix this, though. The only problem: think of the systems banks have used since the 70's/80's... those were 16-bit. They're just now moving toward 32-bits.
        • adrianmonk, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1Actually, the Y2038 problem can be considered a software problem. A 32-bit processor can deal with larger numbers than 32-bit integers quite easily; it just can't do it as fast. Most C compilers support a "long long" datatype that could be used on 32-bit machines to do 64-bit integers. Indeed, C99 compilers are required to provide a 64-bit type.

          Anyway, your assertion that banks are still using 16-bit processors is really hard to believe. Banks and large business systems have been on 32-bit machines for decades. The sheer scale of the work they need to do makes it impractical to use 16-bit processors, and the class of machine they can afford to buy is typically not that limited.
  • diablo75, on 04/06/2008, -1/+2LAME!
  • FireXtol, on 04/06/2008, -2/+2What's with all the soothsayers?
  • daxsymbiont, on 04/06/2008, -2/+39lol what a pathetic list.

    proof: "a really good virus"

    the writer doesn't even know what a computer is.
    • Snakedal337, on 04/06/2008, -0/+4They will infect the routers!! And we will be unable to reach them! Or drive to the data center, unplug them, and install new ones! We cannot do it!! WORLDS WILL END!
    • Suricou, on 04/07/2008, -1/+1No, he was refering to a router virus. A theoretical possibility - there has not yet been someone with the combination of superhuman technical skill, malicious intent and sheer luck needed to create one, but it could happen. A virus that infects IOS could, in theory, take out a lot of routers. A lot of those routers would be in key positions - the ends of submarine cables, the only route to an ISP, key points within networks. If they all crashed at once, it could concieveably kill the internet - espicially if the routers kept handling routing protocols, just refused other traffic. At least for a time, anyway - the army of technicians would be able to fix it, eventually. Without the internet to distribute patches there would be a lot of mailing new firmwares out on CD and flash media, so it would probably take at least a week to get most networks back up.
      • daxsymbiont, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1and that damage would be PERMANENT because..
        • Suricou, on 04/09/2008, -0/+1I didn't say perminant. I said a week. Most of that due to the delay in distributing the patched firmware and instructions to fix it, which would have to be sent via post and word of mouth.
  • jlhoben, on 04/06/2008, -1/+6#1 The global police state coming to a town near you.
  • daxsymbiont, on 04/06/2008, -0/+4THE TUBES WILL CLOG.

    well, in such a pathetic list, you might as well add jokes.
  • karolisonline, on 04/06/2008, -5/+1ok, Internet isn't http protocol and not tcp/ip protocol. ok? so You can't kill Internet, it is system, as television or books are. so can You destroy all televisions in the world and all TVs? i think no. if something happens to the transcontinental connection for example i will be still able to reach torrent tracker in my own country and share files with people from my country. and it will be still Internet. it would be still Internet if i would be running web server for my neighbour and another person would connect second server too this mesh.
    • Suricou, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1Oh, you could kill television. For the UK... there is a central transmitter in London. The others round the country are all relaying from chains of microwave links. Kill the equipment on that transmitter, and thats UHF and Freeview down. Sky you need to shut down the sats - either hit the uplink station and any backups, or do an inside job and gain access to the controls enough to fire the manouvering thrusters and knock them out of orbit. And cable is fed from the sats too, so a lot of channels on that will go down. There will be a few cable channels left, but not a lot. Killing television would be a very difficult task, requiring multible simutainous attacks on many different infrastructures with technniques ranging from hacking to really big bombs. But it is possible, for a well-organised and funded group. Its not something any terrorist group could pull off, but a military attack could easily target the right places to drop bombs.
  • Nivardus, on 04/06/2008, -2/+1What complete and absolute crap.
  • daxsymbiont, on 04/06/2008, -0/+6INTERNET WILL NEVER DIE/.
  • duckyinc, on 04/06/2008, -1/+1#2 Network clogged up by Internet will end posts
  • subterfuge, on 04/06/2008, -1/+1EMP
    • desuexmachina, on 04/06/2008, -0/+2It was designed to survive EMP. A section goes down others take up the packets. Oh sure, your internet might be broken but it'll be just like you didn't pay your bill. It's still there you just can't use it.
  • luke374, on 04/06/2008, -0/+5God help us if somebody Googles Google.
    • adrianmonk, on 04/07/2008, -0/+0I just did. The number one hit was this site called google.com, followed by a bunch of other pages from that same domain.
  • raineyNi, on 04/06/2008, -0/+1cylon attack >,
  • lunchboxtheman, on 04/06/2008, -0/+0Heh, aren't 7 and 8 the same?
  • doshindude, on 04/06/2008, -0/+12The RROD...The Rick Roll of Death.
    • xsquirrel378x, on 04/06/2008, -0/+2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhLxnlNcxv8
      • grimward, on 04/07/2008, -0/+2This is the only time I've actually dugg up a rick roll, because it's actually relevant ... go figure :O
      • userperson, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1points for being original ... don't get me wrong I dig the classics... but we could use an occasional twist. The internets are alive and well.
    • streetstealth, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1"never gonna give you up, never gonna let you... *** ... SEVEN DAYS .... *** ...run around, desert you..."
  • imitationflavor, on 04/06/2008, -0/+1Its "fairly likely" this article will be another doomsday piece that people will laugh at Y2K-style ten years from now.
  • jetsetter883, on 04/06/2008, -0/+3i dont buy the net neutrality thing being a threat. i mean, no one's really going to 'subscribe' to Google as premium content. people would simply leave the internet, or just not use Google. there'd be way too much backlash.
    • zwaldowski, on 04/06/2008, -0/+1You underestimate the not-caring-ness of people. If Comcast told their customers they had to use Ask.com, most people (I'll emphasize it: MOST, not all) people will just not care. How do you think MSIE became dominant? It's not that it was so great.
      • adrianmonk, on 04/07/2008, -0/+0And the geeks will rant about it, and the rest of the world will tell them they spend way too much time worrying about computer stuff.
  • krango, on 04/06/2008, -0/+1Don't take my internets away :(
  • justin82592, on 04/06/2008, -0/+1and then again we can look forward to web 2.0!
  • CarStan, on 04/06/2008, -0/+1We'll have 'The Grid' by then, so no problem

    (Anyone else always hearing this dramatic horror-movie-trailer voice when reading 'THE GRID' ?)
  • deadnoob, on 04/06/2008, -1/+2i fear the net neutrality one the most. there is so much money to be made and the telecoms know it. its just a matter of time until they take over.
    • johnmearns, on 04/06/2008, -0/+0Regardless of what you've read on digg and the "net neutrality" love fest that happens here, the telco's run the internet. There is no "until they take over." Look at the tier 1 carriers. att, level 3, verizon, qwest, sprint, etc. Who did you think has run the infrastructure all this time?
  • thirteenthcor, on 04/06/2008, -0/+2This is just not how the mechanics of something like the internet works. Anyone can create a network of computers, and share almost any sort of data they feel like it. this is a state of mind, a thought, an idea, not something that can simply be controlled. its like moonshine. prohibition happens; take it to the mountains. all a network needs is a dedicated group of users willing to submit and share information.
    the internet is only a broad term encompassing this entire mindset/ideal/philosophy. those networks can also be private, run by private owner/operators, because all it really needs is capital. consider darknets for instance. so no, i disagree, the "internet as we know it" is here to stay, in whatever fashion. networking is networking is networking.

    and as for corporations making a power grab, its pretty hard to hold sand in your fists for too long, and the more you squeeze, the more you lose... seriously how many analogies does it take? there is nothing for them to hold onto! business wont let other businesses take profit out of their own hands. comcast tries to charge google for usage, google offers its own net with an agreement between other websites.... simple

    "You can't stop the signal, Mel"
  • philmck, on 04/06/2008, -1/+0Hmm, let's see...
    1. Rubbish
    2. Rubbish
    3. Rubbish
    4. Rubbish
    5. Rubbish
    6. Rubbish
    7. Rubbish
    8. Rubbish
    9. Rubbish
    10. Rubbish
    They're all either extremely unlikely, or if they do happen someone will fix it pretty quickly.
    • fritzek, on 04/07/2008, -0/+0I can't fugure out an easy solution to extinction of human kind.
  • drmangrum, on 04/06/2008, -0/+1What a load of horse *****. Scratch that, calling this horse ***** is rather insulting to piles of crap everywhere.
  • bdbr, on 04/06/2008, -0/+1I think the best observation was relating to BGP peering (in the comments!). The technical vulnerabilities wouldn't kill the internet, just "maim" it for awhile.

    The openness & neutrality of the internet has been an assumption up until now, but this won't necessarily be so. Its a valid concern. Google may be a bad example (since its not tied to an ISP), but some other service may not get all the bandwidth they need if the ISP has a competing service.
  • jackalvarenga, on 04/06/2008, -0/+0..and all this time i was worried about bittorrent killing the internet
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 74 of 74 discussions
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.