Should the internet be regulated like the rest of the world? Are crimes commited with a keyboard and mouse the same as their outerworld counterparts? What is the difference between? Would two independent legal systems be appropriate, or would that create chaos and rampant drug abuse? What happen to the control-z undo that we had on old computers? Are computers becoming more like us and indistinguishable from us that we can’t take them back in time either? Stock market crashes could be undone. People could have their crimes uncommitted. Pasts erased. Fresh starts or no start at all? Some crimes can’t be undone and lead directly to the harm of another. Physical distance can no longer prevent a perpetrator’s reaching out and assaulting. Links between people are tightly controled and monitored to ensure no false identities, improper conversations and data sharing occur. Under threat of law, we are deterred from doing wrong. Our lives can be stripped from us, for the good of others and for protection from sick people. How can we more clearly define the differences between the two spaces, or is that even important? Physical reality is more under wraps. Is the space occupied by software simply to account for eventual overcrowding by minimizing our footprint and laws spontaneously evolve to control its new world? Conversion of our bodies to information will allow us to expand into space and catch up with the edges of the big bang’s remnants.
A bit of advocacy for internet as a piece of public infrastructure the same as roads: We can buy a car, obtain a license and follow the rules. Police ensure rules are followed-both the yellow ones and the limits. Engineers maintain the structure, design thelayouts. Polititions (the People’s proxy) make the rules. The internet is in the age of the barons. Let’s make it like roads. Then again, roads suck. I can’t drive how fast I want to and they are manipulated by the police for profit.
We can see, hear, taste, touch and smell the world; we can only be ourselves. All of our individual being is interpretation and action—thoughts and decisions. At some level, everything operates under the same rules. Only the tapes which is sent, brought and sought - to and by our bodies - are different. Matter and energy, bodies and minds, animals and rocks. Stars.