Author: Khutso Nkadimeng
17 Feb 2020
The internet as we know it today is a result of many important technological breakthroughs. The foundation of the underlying infrastructure was laid over fifty-one years ago as ARPANET, a United States Department of Defence network connecting universities and research facilities in order to promote sharing of information. I was also meant to enable quick communication between the researchers in order to give the US an edge over the Soviet Union and other enemies. Survival is fundamental to human nature, and so is dominance and that is what drove the technology behind the internet. Human nature did not stop in the 60s or 70s to shape the internet but continues to this day. Our need to communicate gave rise to social networks and dating sites. We want freedom, that lead to blockchain and we always want to enhance ourselves, hence we cannot stop working on artificial intelligence.
Social Media
Social networks emerged from the development of the World Wide Web and form a big part of our lives and culture today. A message that would take big media conglomerates and millions of Rands to spread takes one person with just a smartphone to reach millions of people across the world. This is how the Arab Spring took over the Arab world, is how Greta Thunberg mobilised millions of people against global warming and how Fees Must Fall swept the entire country and parts of the world. Social media gave power to creatives more than any other medium in history, we see YouTube celebrities, Instegram influencers and eCommerce entrepreneurs everywhere. But this kind of power also brings challenges.
Fake News is a fast-growing industry leveraging the power of social media to influence elections and manipulate public opinion. Self-esteem is built and destroyed online because it is now linked with a number of likes and reactions. Cyberbullying is on the rise and so is depression. Swiping right could mean a potential lover or being trafficked. That is all dark and frightening but at least we get to have memes.
Artificial Intelligence
Geoffrey Hinton, a psychologist and computer scientist set out to model the human brain and, in the process, he pioneered one of the most powerful technologies, Artificial Intelligence. A.I is now on the rise because of two other technologies developed earlier: Microprocessors for computation and the Internet of training data.
Algorithms capable of learning now make our Google searches efficient, YouTube video suggestions match what we like to watch, Facebook gives us friend suggestions of people we actually want to invite, Twitter feed is only filled with posts from the people we like and what is trending, Amazon show us what we did not know we want to buy but we do. On the flip side, this big companies know more about us than we do about ourselves, we sold our privacy at a very low price. A.I is also used for Deep Fakes, a fake so good it looks real. A fake video of a politician calling for arms can easily start a war. A fake pornographic video of any individual can ruin their lives forever.
Blockchain
An unknown but legendary figure in the rise of blockchain technology is Satoshi Nakamoto, the developer of cryptocurrency Bitcoin and the first blockchain database. Nakamoto’s creation was in response to the 2008 global market crash which resulted in many people losing faith in the government and financial institutions. Decentralisation is becoming more popular as many people are becoming more concerned with the power held by few companies such as Facebook and organisations such as the NSA.
People want to regain their privacy, and blockchain companies promise just that with companies such as DTube providing decentralised video sharing networks aimed at YouTube. This technology will play a major role in the future of the internet.