Post by Luke Porter on Mar 8, 2012 13:48:34 GMT -5
A Tale of Two Networks
By the year 2112 the internet is a clean, safe, well run, organized and useful tool. But it isn’t the only one. The primary network is dominated by corporate presences, much like AOL in the early and mid 1990’s it is a sanitized and safe place to get information, entertainment and news. For most people it is enough, but there is a sizable number of people who thirst for more, unfiltered news, raw feed entertainment and things ‘they’ are afraid to let you know. For them there is the shadow network, UmbraNet.
Set up with backyard relays, out of service or second hand satellites and WiFi towers operated and built by tech boffins the UmbraNet is the computer version wild west. Illegal and pirated software, gonzo journalism, and malware galore all populate the UmbraNet. Every cyber citizen of the UmbraNet is free to take up there own cause and get their message out into the world, be it; convoluted corporate world dominations conspiracies, ambush ‘journalism’ (a la Andrew Brietbart or Michael Moore). The Internet’s safety features and anti-IP laws can’t touch you on the UmbraNet.
That is not to cast aspersions on the information presented on the UmbraNet, for every Andrew Brietbart there is an Upton Sinclair, it is just that the consumer of information is ultimately responsible for how seriously they take what they have read, watched and/or listened to. Also, it is a place where anonymity is jealously guarded. Presenters and entertainers (sometimes that line is fine as a carbon nanotube) are more often than not digital avatars, and anyone not protecting their identity well enough is just begging to get it stolen.
But navigating the UmbraNet is no easy affair. Broken links; bizarre and convoluted network pathways through backdoors and stolen server space; and intermittent service based on everything from sunspot activity or satilite position to a timer in a storage unit server farm, make navigating the UmbraNet not for the faint of heart or unskilled. Links to underground sites pop up on the regular internet all of the time, but navigating without the links is a task for highly skilled computer experts. There s no UmbraGoogle, and there is no reason to create one. If you need Google, you are a N00b and don’t belong ... go back to your WoW game.
By the year 2112 the internet is a clean, safe, well run, organized and useful tool. But it isn’t the only one. The primary network is dominated by corporate presences, much like AOL in the early and mid 1990’s it is a sanitized and safe place to get information, entertainment and news. For most people it is enough, but there is a sizable number of people who thirst for more, unfiltered news, raw feed entertainment and things ‘they’ are afraid to let you know. For them there is the shadow network, UmbraNet.
Set up with backyard relays, out of service or second hand satellites and WiFi towers operated and built by tech boffins the UmbraNet is the computer version wild west. Illegal and pirated software, gonzo journalism, and malware galore all populate the UmbraNet. Every cyber citizen of the UmbraNet is free to take up there own cause and get their message out into the world, be it; convoluted corporate world dominations conspiracies, ambush ‘journalism’ (a la Andrew Brietbart or Michael Moore). The Internet’s safety features and anti-IP laws can’t touch you on the UmbraNet.
That is not to cast aspersions on the information presented on the UmbraNet, for every Andrew Brietbart there is an Upton Sinclair, it is just that the consumer of information is ultimately responsible for how seriously they take what they have read, watched and/or listened to. Also, it is a place where anonymity is jealously guarded. Presenters and entertainers (sometimes that line is fine as a carbon nanotube) are more often than not digital avatars, and anyone not protecting their identity well enough is just begging to get it stolen.
But navigating the UmbraNet is no easy affair. Broken links; bizarre and convoluted network pathways through backdoors and stolen server space; and intermittent service based on everything from sunspot activity or satilite position to a timer in a storage unit server farm, make navigating the UmbraNet not for the faint of heart or unskilled. Links to underground sites pop up on the regular internet all of the time, but navigating without the links is a task for highly skilled computer experts. There s no UmbraGoogle, and there is no reason to create one. If you need Google, you are a N00b and don’t belong ... go back to your WoW game.
