The Dawn of the Stupid Network
-
So what exactly is a Stupid Network? George Gilder observed more than five years ago, "In a world of dumb terminals and telephones, networks had to be smart. But in a world of smart terminals, networks have to be dumb." In a Stupid Network, control passes from the center to the edge, from the telco to users with an abundance of processing power at their fingertips. The center of the network is based on plentiful infrastructure – cheap bandwidth and switching – that is about as smart as a river. The water in a river, like a data object in a Stupid Network, gets to where it must go adaptively, with no intelligence and no features, using self-organizing engineering principles, at virtually no cost. Bits go in one end and come out the other. Data flows – like water – define the movements and channels within the system.
A '90s lesson in open networks, walled gardens and innovation... that we still haven't learned.
-
So what exactly is a Stupid Network? George Gilder observed more than five years ago, "In a world of dumb terminals and telephones, networks had to be smart. But in a world of smart terminals, networks have to be dumb." In a Stupid Network, control passes from the center to the edge, from the telco to users with an abundance of processing power at their fingertips. The center of the network is based on plentiful infrastructure – cheap bandwidth and switching – that is about as smart as a river. The water in a river, like a data object in a Stupid Network, gets to where it must go adaptively, with no intelligence and no features, using self-organizing engineering principles, at virtually no cost. Bits go in one end and come out the other. Data flows – like water – define the movements and channels within the system.
A '90s lesson in open networks, walled gardens and innovation... that we still haven't learned.
-
But if we just let anybody send data over our pipe, then TERRORISTS could stream CHILD PORN over your internet connection! And then you'd go to JAIL! :P
You're not thinking clearly. If WE stream CHILD PORN to the TERRORISTS, they'll all go to hell. Problem solved.