Has anyone ever thought of constructing decentralized networks as concurrence to the internet? We could use radio frequencies to propagate data or even satellites. Or mesh networks. And if we restrict it to text files data transfer could be pretty easy, less harmful concerning viruses and could even be one-time-pad-encrypted. Referring to textfiles.com you can download a big part of the ancient American BBS network on a single telephone. It's some gigabytes in total (excluding pdfs).
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@IntegralDuChemin I do some work on mesh networks. In terms of radio its tricky to do with some really serious difficulties.
@IntegralDuChemin I would love to hear more about this and/or be part of these conversations if possible
@mark Yes, of course. It was just an idea I carried around with me for quite some time but it still lacks the details.
@IntegralDuChemin Have you seen the work ISOC NY does with the NYC / Brooklyn Mesh? It's fairly compelling and easy to do in a really dense population zone like that.
@mark We have a similar initiative in Germany called Freifunk. They create a local mesh network which can provide anonymous internet access as well.
@IntegralDuChemin That's super cool
@IntegralDuChemin A few people have been thinking of all these things for a long time. A critical mass of people actually working on these things hasn't materialised yet, but I'm not losing hope they will. If anything, a convergence of freethinking, freewilling, and freewheeling people determined to succeed has only become more likely as a byproduct of these networks we're building.
@IntegralDuChemin The thinking is already there, collaboration and cooperation is still lacking, but the necessary blocks are starting to fall into place.
In time, we'll see the emergence of amazing things being built, with apparent spontaneity.
Let there be light.
@IntegralDuChemin Some parts of the HAM radio network already do operate data traffic nodes.
@IntegralDuChemin Not large for a company or network with sufficient funding.
@IntegralDuChemin Mind, Ham traffic cannot be encrypted AFAIU.
Yes. I've done serious research on protocol design, routing efficiencies and so on.
Nobody gave a damn, so I dropped it.
@IntegralDuChemin there's IPFS: the Inter Planetary File System!
There are other projects working on similar systems, but his one has, despite its cool name, a lot of folks thinking about it with the origins of tcp/ip in mind.
@IntegralDuChemin there's actually a chunk of ip addresses reserved for use by internet over ham radio which I think is a really interesting idea