Is Web5, Web6 and Web7, a near future?
We currently live in a world where one can never really know where the Web and Internet at large is shifting towards. The only certain thing about technology is that it is always changing. Tech developed today and forecasted to be the ‘Next Big Thing’ could easily be obsolete by the following day. Our progression as the human race can be credited to creativity and initiative. The ultimate goal of this being the assimilation of a virtual world that is so responsive to the extent that it becomes a mere extension of reality. This artificial reality could possibly replace the natural world due to it’s indifference to our wishes.
Recently, there has been increased interest on Web5, Web6 and Web7 concerning their potential use in the world. This article seeks to ease understanding by taking look at how the internet and web began. It then glances over the Web revolution and draws a conclusion on what all these could mean for us.
The Internet
The internet was essentially built to facilitate information transfer between computers, primarily for military use. With time, government researchers employed it to transfer data but within localized computers. Thus, the internet was birthed as a network of computers within organizations with the pioneer blueprint being the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network(ARPANet) which paved way for improvement of the internet into what we know it to be today.
Web1
This is the earliest version of the Web that consisted of static pages written using Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML). Organizations could broadcast their information and one was restricted to only be able to lookup information and read it, hence commonly referred to as ‘Read-Only Web’. There was limitation to user interaction and content generation.
Web2
The internet was effective in performing its duty , however the Web needed to be more than just readable and for networks to exist outside an organization. During the early 90’s, Tim Berners Lee developed a high-level network of content that allowed documents to link to other documents. This enabled modelling of Web Browsers, servers and web pages. He used three technologies: Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol(HTTP), Hyper-Text Markup Language(HTML) and Uniform Resource Locator(URL).
He further founded World Wide WEB Consortium(W3C) that develops protocols and guidelines to ensure long-term growth of the Web by providing standards to help make the world accessible and internationally recognized by governments and businesses. It is important to note that Tim didn’t invent hypertext systems(HTML existed during Web1), he just leveraged on its potential and used it to link and access information pages in which the user can browse at will.
At this point, the web became a system of interlinked “hypertext” documents accessed via the internet. An information space but on a global scale.
Currently, the world greatly uses Web2 as it has created emphasis on social networking, content generated by users and cloud computing, while research on other versions of the Web are in the pilot and testing phase.
Web3
This version is considered to be the pioneer of executable Web. It is the Web of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Blockchain technology, Cryptocurrency, the metaverse, NFTs and the emerging terminologies we hear everyday. Its main bargaining chip being decentralization that is the use of smart contracts(programs) and automated transactions without a central body. In other words, it is peer-to-peer interaction overlooking interference by administrative authority or monitoring by third parties such as governments and organizations.
Web4
The ideology behind Web4 is increasing interaction between machines and humans where they mutually benefit from one another. This essentially is to occur on virtual environments where data is organized, connected and processed automatically. Although Web4 hasn’t yet been completely developed, aspects of it have been deployed such as robotics in industries to increase production. It is greatly within the testing and evaluation phase.
Web5
Web5 has been named ‘telepathic and emotive’ Web as it has been projected to center on emotional interaction between humans and computers. The users of the internet will be able to entirely own their data and control it’s use on the internet. Internet of Thing(IoT) is gauged to be most usable technology where people will connect the internet, their careers, their belongings and so forth using chip implants in the human body.
Web6 and Web7
At this point, the main question is: What more could we want or have the ability to achieve? You’d think the end of smart-tech futures would be Web5 since we’ve finally been able to control everything with our intelligence and sentiments(practically superpowers).
The research on Web6 and Web7 has been quite vague but what remains unquestionable is the capability of human imagination. Web5 will definitely not be a limiting factor to emerging trends in technology, but rather a stepping stone into the future.
Conclusion…
The Internet and Web has gone beyond just enabling computers to share information and created realities where anything is possible. How fast we implement most recent Web versions is entirely dependent on the work put in by us. Without a doubt, we will eventually attain all this goals, the matter at hand is whether we will be able to maintain privacy and confidentiality of data while upholding moral values.
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