The Contingent Internet
The Internet is so omnipresent and pervasive that its form may seem an inevitability. It is hard to imagine a "different" Internet, but the character of the Internet as we experience it today is, in fact, contingent on key decisions made in the past by its designers, those who have investe...
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| Format: | Article |
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MIT Press
2018
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/115284 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2676-889X |
| _version_ | 1811084133763383296 |
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| author | Clark, David D |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Clark, David D |
| author_sort | Clark, David D |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The Internet is so omnipresent and pervasive that its form may seem an inevitability. It is hard to imagine a "different" Internet, but the character of the Internet as we experience it today is, in fact, contingent on key decisions made in the past by its designers, those who have invested in it, and those who have regulated it. With different choices, we might have a very different Internet today. This paper uses past choices made during the emergence of the early Internet as a lens to look toward its future, which is equally contingent on decisions being made today: by industry, by governments, by users, and by the research community. This paper identifies some of those key choices, and discusses alternative futures for the Internet, including how open, how diverse, how funded, and how protective of the rights of its users it may be. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:45:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/115284 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:45:27Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | MIT Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1152842022-09-28T09:53:02Z The Contingent Internet Clark, David D Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Clark, David D The Internet is so omnipresent and pervasive that its form may seem an inevitability. It is hard to imagine a "different" Internet, but the character of the Internet as we experience it today is, in fact, contingent on key decisions made in the past by its designers, those who have invested in it, and those who have regulated it. With different choices, we might have a very different Internet today. This paper uses past choices made during the emergence of the early Internet as a lens to look toward its future, which is equally contingent on decisions being made today: by industry, by governments, by users, and by the research community. This paper identifies some of those key choices, and discusses alternative futures for the Internet, including how open, how diverse, how funded, and how protective of the rights of its users it may be. 2018-05-10T13:50:18Z 2018-05-10T13:50:18Z 2016-01 2018-04-24T17:30:36Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0011-5266 1548-6192 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/115284 Clark, David D. “The Contingent Internet.” Daedalus 145, 1 (January 2016): 9–17 © 2016 David D. Clark https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2676-889X http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/DAED_A_00361 Daedalus Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf MIT Press MIT Press |
| spellingShingle | Clark, David D The Contingent Internet |
| title | The Contingent Internet |
| title_full | The Contingent Internet |
| title_fullStr | The Contingent Internet |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Contingent Internet |
| title_short | The Contingent Internet |
| title_sort | contingent internet |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/115284 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2676-889X |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT clarkdavidd thecontingentinternet AT clarkdavidd contingentinternet |