Mobile Network of the Future

Have you noticed how most new mobile phone models have built-in wifi antenas. Have you Noticed how many of the hot new mobile phones are Unix based (Iphone, Android, Limo phones, Maemo, etc) and support 3rd party app development?

Now, what if we allow cell phones to work as wifi routers to a global mesh-network? Yes, it would be fatal to telecoms... but I would certainly be great for companies like Google which wouldn't depend on telecoms for moving content to a very important segment of the market.

Naturally, it would be fantastic for consumers, an it would bring low cost communications to the poorest parts of the globe more efficiently.

All that is required is a app, like the one we have on open-wrt, which enables our routers to form mesh-networks.

It is a wild idea, I know. But those are the ones that change the world!

The Internet Manifesto

This document is a must read (see link at the end).

I want to add my own items to it:

1. Net Neutrality is not only protecting Internet content provider corporations' profits

We need to defend net neutrality in a way which goes beyond what is currently done: We need to establish fixed ip addresss for every private individual so that publishing rights don't have to be gatekeeped by large corporations such as Google and the like.

2. Copyright should not be sellable item.

The source of most of the confusion about whether copyright is a good thing or not in the information age, is the fact that most of the commercial exploration of copyrighted materials is not done by the original authors, but by large publishing houses which either coerce authors to give them the commercial right to their work in exchange for pennies, or exploit materials which should be in the public domain for as much as 70 years after the authors death.

3. Network Infrastructure ownership should not be a priviledge of large corporations.

The right to form open "ad hoc" wireless networks should be guaranteed globally, like we have with amateur radio for decades. This is the only way to assure the basic freedom of association and expression.

referente a: Internet-Manifesto (ver no Google Sidewiki)

Computo Ergo Sum

Writing, or the ability to register knowledge using an standardized set of symbols, has been available to most human cultures for millenia. Yet if we look at its popularity a mere couple of hundred years ago, we will find its use restricted to very small fraction of the population frequently associated with powerful social groups such as the clergy, the nobility etc. This fact is not surprising when we consider the value of knowledge in any time or age. Writing, being the main form of registering, transmitting and manipulating knowledge, has always been an intrument of intelectual emancipation.

In primitive societites, the ability to read and write was a skill restricted, by law to very specific professions such as scribes. Later in history, this strict restriction was found not to be necessary since most people did not gravitate towards it despite the increased availability of opportunities to learn to read and write. Even today, when iliteracy is not that prevalent, only a relatively small fraction of the population is able to use literacy in a productive way, that is produce text that can and will be used by others as a source of information. In the 21st century, most of us still relegate the recording of collective knowledge and culture to a few scribes.

In 1637, the french Philosopher Descartes coined the phrase Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am) to summarize the most distinctive attribute of the human existence: the ability to think, that is, the ability to process information with our minds in a rational way. In the dark ages, that was not a popular skill, especially since people were thaught to trust all important information was to be revealed by god, and not derived from evidence. This situation has improved a little in present days, but we still find many people willing to take information at face value without reasoning about its plausibility.

In the information age in which we live today, information is available to us in ever growing ammounts that already exceed the processing capabilitites of our brain and biological senses and require computational tools to be fully processed and received.

A human who is not competent to efficiently process this surge of information by making use of available computational tools is not a full member of the information age and society. Thus the theme of this Blog: "Computo Ergo Sum", I compute, therefore I am.