Of all the issues impeding our progression towards becoming a Type 1 civilization, perhaps the most easily resolved of these is the need for a planetary communications system. This communications system is already in place; it goes by the name of “The Internet,” nearly everyone has access to it, and so we can all live happily ever after… right?
Before we discuss the reason why the answer to that question is “no,” let us first pay tribute to those who have brought us to the brink of complete success in this area. There are some 30 people (give or take a few or even a dozen) to whom thanks should be given, and to do so would require a book (an additional thanks to all who have written books doing just that). From the inception of the Internet by Leonard Kleinrock to the release of the modem by Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington, the Internet was not invented by a single human being, but in a progression of steps and modifications and improvements from 1961 to today. However, most people think of the Internet as being mostly invented by Vinton Cerf, Robert Kahn, and Donald Davies, and the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee.
In a previous article, I discussed the need for an end to all wars to proceed to Type 1 civilization status, however historically the war machines of our nation-states have been a catalyst to technological innovation. As a manager at DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), Vinton Cerf was instrumental in connecting the first two nodes of the predecessor of the Internet. Afterward, he would move on to work at MCI Digital Information Services and lead the team that created the first commercial email service.
Working alongside Vinton Cerf, Robert Kahn helped make Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) for a satellite network. He also invented Internet Protocol or IP. He formed the basis of open-architecture networking that would eventually enable computers all over the world to network and communicate with one another.
Meanwhile, in the UK, Donald Davies was simultaneously yet separately working on similar networking ideas that would come to the attention of the team working on the predecessor to the Internet. Davies began his career at the National Physical Laboratory when Alan Turing was at work on his Automatic Computing Engine.
And then came along Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who is known as the creator of the World Wide Web, which we now refer to as the Internet. He somewhat famously once explained how he invented the Web by stating that he took “the hypertext idea and connect(ed) it to the Transmission Control Protocol and domain name system ideas and ta-da! — the World Wide Web.”
The Internet is a tool. It is the most significant communications tool that humans have or will create for some time. And like most of our greatest concepts and inventions, it was and is open to the tinkering of innovators. Kardashev’s scale for categorizing the energy usage and collection of a civilization has been modified and refined by Carl Sagan and Michio Kaku, and the result has been an improvement on the original idea. So too the Internet has been transformed by numerous programmers, hackers, and idealists.
Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim, and Steve Chen founded YouTube. Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger created Wikipedia. Julian Assange unleashed WikiLeaks and introduced fear to those with too many secrets. Of course, Sergey Brin and Larry Page gave us Google, which is not only a search engine but also a verb. And last, what list of this nature would be complete without Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.
However, to return to the question at the beginning of the article: With all of this, why are we not allowed to accept our great feat and focus on other areas to achieve Type 1 Civilization status? And the answer is that about 3.1 billion people use the Internet. There are about 7.7 billion people alive right now. This means that approximately 60% of the population of Earth has no access to our planetary communications network. And without access to the Internet, these people have no voice.
When we talk of a planetary society marching together towards evolving further and becoming a Type 1 Civilization, what images enter your mind? Do you see a picture of a world made to resemble the United States of America? Do you see a world in the image of China? I’ve stated elsewhere that only a society based on equality and equity for all can transform into a Type 1 Civilization, and the image I see is a world of pluralism, a world of inclusiveness and multiplicity and acceptance. Any other route would entail a planetary society built upon the bones of the conquered; a near-empty world scorched by the poisonous fumes of our weapons of annihilation. And there can be no equality or pluralism without everyone in every corner having a voice.
And this brings us to Mark Zuckerberg’s Internet.org initiative. On the surface, this idea could have transformed the planet, and simultaneously catapulted Zuckerberg up towards the lofty philanthropic hall of legends alongside Jonas Salk (didn’t patent his polio vaccine because he wanted it to freely benefit the world) and Tim Berners-Lee (didn’t patent his idea for the internet because he wanted it to freely benefit the world). On the surface, this project was designed to bring Internet access to billions of otherwise silenced people at no cost. On the surface, this was to lead to a moment when all of us could speak and be heard.
On the surface, and lurking just beneath the surface is one of the major factors that seems always to hold humanity back or outright poison our otherwise positive endeavors: greed.
What is being offered to people in the form of the Internet.org project is not a free means to communicate with the rest of the world and free access to information; what is being offered is an opportunity to swell the ranks of Facebook which makes its money by harvesting, exploiting, and selling user data. It is an enclosed digital domain that does not allow access to as much of the regular Internet that the 3.1 billion regular users can access.
However, let’s not be too hasty to condemn Mark Zuckerberg. Yes, he is offering restricted access to people, but at the same time, he is providing some access to otherwise marginalized people. He has made the first steps in a truly enormous undertaking, and for that, I applaud his idea.
But now it is time to set greed and power and personal ambition aside and to act as a part of humankind, rather than as one who believes they are above it. It is not too late for Mark Zuckerberg to become known as the man who gave the Internet — the open and unrestricted and no-strings-attached Internet — at no cost to billions of marginalized and voiceless people around the world.
It is not too late to become known as one of the people who helped lift humanity towards becoming a Type 1 Civilization, rather than yet another megalomaniac for humanity to overcome. And what greater glory could a modern human hope to obtain, than to be a part of those who helped human civilization live forever?
