
Internet for All - vignanv8
https://medium.com/@vignanv8/internet-for-all-2a7316d2283a
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benten10
There's something I've been wondering lately. The concept of modern 'social'
internet, to me, seems to presume that the majority of the users share at
least some core liberal values of acceptance of a diverse set of ideas, and
respect for other individuals, as they are, and assumes that the society is at
least reasonably peaceful and stable.

What happens when the internet comprises mostly of individuals whose don't
share those views? What when/if, for example, a vast majority of internet
users believes that women shouldn't have sexual choices, that gays are
abhorrent? As someone from South Asia, I like to imagine the internet of the
Future when most of the internet users are those men who seem to have a
pathological hate/fear of women and values seen as 'liberal'/'western'. Men
are already aggressively violent against women when they are openly
identified. I wonder how the dynamics change when they could get anonymous.

Even further, what if a large population of internet users deeply detests any
other populations, and wants them dead.

I was watching the trailer for this new documentary on the genocide in
Cambodia(?), and how people live in peace with their children's murderers as
neighbors. With a constant barrage of reminders of terrible events from the
internet, and the mutual massaging of strong emotions [REMEMBER what they did
to our parents/kids! NEVER FORGET!, etc], I wonder if on the whole, the
internet will make things a lot worse in a lot of places/the internet as a
whole will significantly change form.

You could argue that the same could be said for any communication media. I
remember reading about the role that Rwandan FM stations played in the
Genocide: they would keep aflame the fires that were burning out, and
constantly supply fodder for death and hate. Apparently it was only after the
stations were closed that things began to get slightly under control (?). With
the possibility of blimp-powered and satellite internet, the kind of
communication that cannot be disrupted at all, I wonder how things would be.

I like to imagine a scene of outright violence and civil war -- say race riots
and race-based violence in the US. Would the easy availability of the internet
help or hinder peacekeeping efforts?

What would be the right response in such situations?

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StavrosK
How many Chinese people do you come across on the internet right now? How many
Japanese? How many Russian?

Nations on the internet are segregated by language. Learning the language of a
country (or a few countries) usually means that you learn about their culture
as well, so communicating won't be such a big shock.

~~~
thaumasiotes
> How many Chinese people do you come across on the internet right now? How
> many Japanese? How many Russian?

> Nations on the internet are segregated by language.

This is true as far as it goes, but I don't really run into British,
Australian, or even Canadian people either. Language may not be the primary
factor.

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mrec
> I don't really run into British, Australian, or even Canadian people either

How do you know you don't? It's not like we (I'm British) type with an accent.

~~~
thaumasiotes
You can type with an accent. Brits have various vocabulary, spelling, and
idiom differences that might give them away (although to be fair, I probably
wouldn't recognize a specifically British idiom if I saw it).

There are two points here: (1), I don't interact with very many people on the
internet. I certainly don't use it to meet new people. And (2), I don't look
for content aimed at (e.g.) an English audience. I read a large number of
different bloggers, but it seems to have worked out that they're American.
(John Derbyshire is English, but has lived in the US for years, and as far as
I know has no intention to leave. Does he count?)

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bobajeff
This is the first time I've heard about the SpaceX, OneWeb and Yakiny low
orbit small satellite constellation projects. It says they could allow for
viable low latency, high bandwidth satellite internet.

It sounds to me like the coverage of such constellations would allow for a
satilite phone to actually deliver on the promise of working anywhere around
the globe.

~~~
pogden
Iridium works anywhere on earth, it's just expensive.

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p1mrx
Earth has ~7 billion people, and ~3 billion IPv4 addresses. Unless we can
finish this slow-as-molasses transition to IPv6, what we're really talking
about is "HTTP clients for all, Internet for those in the right place with
enough money."

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Animats
There are 96 cell phone subscriptions per 100 people in the world. Most of
those have at least some minimal Internet capability. It's just that not all
can view cat videos yet.

~~~
thaumasiotes
How many of those cell phone subscriptions share the same person?

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kirk21
Great read! Subreddit dedicated to this topic:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/globalinternet](https://www.reddit.com/r/globalinternet)

