Hackers — The Immune System of the Internet?
This is an amazing TEDTalk in which Keren Elazari likens hackers to the immune system of the Internet.
I like this concept very much. The idea that all of that data could somehow be self-regulating through the loosely-associated actions of living people — it is cyberpunk.
Now let’s take a look at a hypothetical future. The Internet as we know it consists of darknets — private peer-to-peer networks. Each darknet has its own version of Google, Reddit and Facebook. Your real-world social status depends largely on which darknet you can access.
dark·net
ˈdärkˌnet/
noun
COMPUTING
a computer network with restricted access that contains resources unavailable to the World Wide Web.
The Internet of today still exists, of course, but it’s so sanitized that the cool people don’t use it.
Would you be one of the cool kids?
Google and Facebook have each been replaced a dozen times. Search is instantaneous, interactive and 3D. Privacy has come to mean the santitity of your own thoughts, and even that is threatened.
Supercomputers are the size of a penny — pennies no longer exist though, because currency is digital. These computers are biocompatible and fit to the underside of the skull. They interface directly with the neocortex or the medulla oblongata, depending on their purpose.
Computers that interface with the lizard brain are capable of supercharging reflexes, and are reserved for police and military use. CPUs that interface with the neocortex, on the other hand, are capable of jacking into the various lobes of the brain. These computers inject themselves into our senses. They inform us of the world around us.
When you go to a restaurant, a menu-touting server won’t greet you. Instead, as soon as you sit, your implant will logon to the restaurant’s website, and it will go to work splicing into your occipital lobe. Then you will see the menu floating in front of you. Dishes will materialize on the table as you read it. The implant will worm its way into your temporal lobe, accessing your memory. Then you will smell the dishes too. Having made your selection, you blink and the food disappears.
Later, as you peruse the aisles of your local grocery store, you linger near a package of cookies, and a large red exclamation point flashes into existence over the package. A message materializes beneath the exclamation point: “You told me to remind you that you’re watching your figure.” You sigh and move on.
Now imagine for a moment that you’re walking through the woods on a warm, summer day. The infrasonic listening device you have pinned to your jacket has better hearing than the average bat. The device — let’s call it QSense — is connected directly to your primary sensory cortex.
QSense sends information to your brain, but not before the computer embedded beneath your skull filters out 99% of it. Hearing the comings and goings of every creepy crawly wouldn’t make for a very peaceful trek through the woods. Instead, you tell your implant what to filter out. Specifically, you’ve told it to watch out for the telltale sound of a snake slithering through grass or over leaves and twigs. All is well.
Except for one thing: hackers a hundred years from now don’t hijack the Internet, they hijack you.
You stumble and fall, hands to your head, as an indescribable cacophony compresses your consciousness into a tiny point within your mental space. Someone has gained access to your implant, and the filter that manages data from QSense is no longer working. You’re paralyzed.
This isn’t an argument against progress. Nor is it a cautionary tale. It’s not even a discourse on whether hacking is acceptable. Hackers aren’t going anywhere, and, for better or worse, groups like Anonymous have demonstrated an ability — and willingness — to do good.
Some version of QSense will show up eventually. Sure, the world may not even be ready for Google Glass just yet, but give it thirty years.When this technology arrives, some hackers will use it for good, and some for will use it for their own purposes.
The only question is whether cybersecurity agencies will keep up. Forward thinkers like Karen Elazari give me hope that they will.
What’s your take?
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