We have completed maintenance on DiscoverMagazine.com and action may be required on your account. Learn More

Is It Time to Chuck the Internet and Start Over?

Expanding today's overcrowded Web is like building a skyscraper on a pile of styrofoam.

By Mark Anderson
Nov 7, 2008 6:00 AMNov 12, 2019 4:06 AM
ries-t2.jpg
Image © Regents of the University of California Berkeley | NULL

Newsletter

Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news
 

The Internet is a fast-growing 40-year-old city in desperate need of renovation. In 2008 1.5 billion people worldwide used the likes of BitTorrent, IM, Facebook, e-mail, Google, and Skype via communications protocols originally intended for mere hundreds. The wear is not only showing but worsening: Upkeep and patchwork programming continue to make running networks expensive, and cybercrime is flourishing. In response, teams of computer scientists are gathering to form a Manhattan Project of sorts to rethink the Internet.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) chose Ellen Zegura, chairwoman of GENI’s network science and engineering council. “Think of FedEx compared with the old U.S. Postal system.” However, while the mail and package delivery system is large and complex —much like the Internet—it has had far more time to test a variety of iterations, from private to public to a combination of the two. The challenge of integrating new ideas into the existing Internet is more like writing, filming, and then editing an entirely new story line into the Matrix trilogy: How do you reconfigure an entire universe that’s already overclocked, jacked-in, and densely coded?

1 free article left
Want More? Get unlimited access for as low as $1.99/month

Already a subscriber?

Register or Log In

1 free articleSubscribe
Discover Magazine Logo
Want more?

Keep reading for as low as $1.99!

Subscribe

Already a subscriber?

Register or Log In

More From Discover
Recommendations From Our Store
Shop Now
Stay Curious
Join
Our List

Sign up for our weekly science updates.

 
Subscribe
To The Magazine

Save up to 40% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine.

Copyright © 2024 Kalmbach Media Co.