Computing and the Internet is a human right
Many people have suggested that access to the internet should be a human right. And I agree. The internet is integrated into our culture in a way we could never have imagined a couple of decades ago. It has increased quality of life. It has allowed for more upward mobility. It has strenghtened our societies by building bridges between people all across the world.
As can be read on Wikipedia, the WSIS Declaration of Principles references the importance of the right to freedom of expression in the Information Society:
“(…) Communication is a fundamental social process, a basic human need and the foundation of all social organization. It is central to the Information Society. Everyone, everywhere should have the opportunity to participate and no one should be excluded from the benefits the Information Society offers.[2]”
Even the UN thinks internet access is a human right. This is the direction things are, and should, be going — and I think that next step is to make access to computing a human right.
Access to computing allows individuals to enter the digital space. It enables people to increase their awareness. Learn more. Solve problems. It augments the human being and increases what a person can do. It adds choices.
Computing shouldn’t be owned or controlled by corporations.
If computing is available anywhere the internet is available, on any client that can access it — and if it is made autonomous and separate from our commercially branded devices; then it could be understood as an immersive, spacial layer of our biosphere — a freely evolving part of biological life on this world.
Think about the possibilities. A user account, a representation of you — your identity, not owned by any company, built into the internet itself. It will enable you to freely compute, anywhere you are — as part of your life.
Our current technological civilization is expanding and merging with societies across cultures world wide. We realize that it is built on computing. And it grows out of applications that help us navigate through life. Express ourselves. Communicate and build networks.
At one point, the big corporations have to let this technology go into “the commons”. It has to be freed. Then we can start adding value and innovations on top. This was understood by the open source movement many years ago. And this understanding is now more important than ever before.
A biosphere computing layer adds the basic and required functionality to lead a digital lifestyle into nature. It becomes a truly interactive, non-discriminating field. It will raise the baseline of what is available to every human being from birth. As their birthright.
Friend is built to be such a layer. It allows you to use and build new software, distribute services and give access to computing resources. It can take shape through any interface — with the same functionality right across all the alternative implementations. This is why we call Friend a Unifying Platform.
Friend can give us an omnipresent computing layer for everyone on this planet in a matter of years. It’s really happening right now!
