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Week 1: Response to Short History of the Internet and Long Live the Web – Sebastian Lau (Chen)

While reading the two passages there were some parts that stuck out to me in terms of how it connected to The Machine Stops by E.M Forster. After reading these passages I felt like my knowledge of what the Internet is has increased and has made me view it as something more dangerous than I would have otherwise thought. 

In Short History of the Internet the author writes about how the internet is formed of many nodes that connect to each other, with the purpose of having a less linear communication system in the sense that if one node goes offline, it doesn’t mess up the whole system. While of course, this has helped make the Internet more reliable as it is hard to shut down completely, I feel like this fact is a cause of at least some concern. From what I understand about the way the nodes work if there ever is the need to completely eradicate the Internet for whatever reason then it would be almost impossible without a heavily coordinated effort. I think that is somewhat concerning because there are so many ways that the Internet could affect our lives, and it is getting harder and harder to get away from it. I would kind of compare it to how the Machine permeates everybody’s life and it’s almost impossible to get away from it. The people couldn’t stop it because they either didn’t care or because the Machine was so big that it was almost impossible to stop anyways. As a result, the Machine became ingrained in everybody’s life and when it started malfunctioning nobody would be able to survive if they tried to adapt to the new world. 

When I was reading Long Live the Web I found the idea of a less free Internet to be disturbing. There is already evidence of this with China where many sites get censored to stifle anti-Chinese media and while there is a problem of “fake news” in the U.S I think I would rather have more access to lots of information even if there is a chance for it to be false. I would liken the censorship of the Internet to the censorship of the outside world in The Machine Stops. Because the outside world is barred to the people they never get to know about it and are content with their version of the world because they never experienced anything else. On a somewhat unrelated note, I feel like this is a good argument for traveling in terms of experiencing new cultures and that people who are willing to learn more about the world will tend to be less close-minded. 

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Week 1: Response to “Long Live the Web” by Tim Berners-Lee and “The Internet is Everywhere” by Ingrid Burrington-Laura Huang

    The article “Long Live the Web” describes some normal standards and principles through the evolvement of the Web, as well as the threatens the Internet is facing, ruining these fundamental principles. One of the principles is the universality or decentralization which enable the information to convey and exchange without the boundary of space and time. It enables people to access any link (URL) freely without royalties. Other standards, such as net neutrality and no snooping, all guarantee a safe and open Internet environment.

    However, in contemporary time, the Internet is gradually fragmented into “small kingdoms” which are isolated from each other. Companies create their own independent system to enclose the profit, technology, and communication. For instance, Apple’s iTunes system and their own apps block the information from each other, which may hold back the diversity and creativity of the market. For individuals, the theory of “Information Cocoons” raise by Tocqueville, a 19th-century French political scientist, may conclude the present situation to some extent. The “Information Cocoons” illustrates that in the dissemination of information, the public only pays attention to the things they are willing to learn and the information that may please them. Gradually, they will be constrained in the cocoon. The threats that the Web is facing increases this phenomenon as people are deprived of their liberty and right to access the new information. On the other side, the Internet world can’t operate smoothly without regulations or consensus. The interference of government should be appropriate so that it won’t affect individual privacy or the Web universality and can contribute to healthy development of the Internet.

    In the article “A Network of Fragments” written by Ingrid Burrington, the author demonstrates that the physical fiber, one of the most important parts among the infrastructural fragments of the network is transferring and delivering information every moment but is often neglected by people. Just like the complex American railway system that involves countless links and road marks, the Internet is a similar system and the fibers are the small signifiers that are connected with us implicitly. The author quotes from an article called “See the moon?” to expresses that the fragments and small components are the basis of the entire network system.

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Week 1: Tim Berners-Lee’s “Long Live the Web” & Ingrid Burrington’s “The Room Where the Internet was Born” Reading Reflection- Ying Chen

In today’s word, access to the Web through the internet is becoming more of a necessity. Like Tim Berners Lee says in his “Long Live the Web”, “We take it for granted, expecting it to “be there” at any instant, like electricity”. He addresses the important role of the Web such as being a democratic platform for people and advocates to protect the freedom of speech. The progression of the Web along with the internet is going toward a path that Lee is unexpected. Originally, he created it for research and ultimately, to serve humanity. But now, it faces challenges such as censorship, limitation of competition that leads to innovation, and web neutrality. He demands the separation of the Web from the internet, so it is free from third party interference such as limiting the network speed of the users by the internet service provider to compete in the market. It is unfortunate to see that Lee has no control over the trajectory of his own creation. In writing this article, he attempts to reassure the principal that he created for the Web by seeking mutual cooperation from everyone.

Ingrid Burrington in his article “The Room Where the Internet was Born” focuses on the historical progression of ARPANET and the basis for the modern internet. The setting was set in a room at UCLA and it is made into a museum. It’s imagery as “really large, expensive, and intensively energy-consuming technology” really contrast with how the internet function today. It is only a decade that this once clunky machine that created the internet and shaped the way how we live today. The use of metaphor in comparing the internet to “the cloud” best fit the transformation of something physical into an invisible substance that is able to transfer information into the far distance.