In case you hadn't noticed from my previous posts, I really enjoy watching the Vsauce videos and recommend them to everyone. They cover a wide array of topics in a really interesting manner, so that everyone will find a video they enjoy, particularly if you are keen on science. Today he talked about the internet and something he said struck me deeply. Most of the terms used for online activities are related to the ocean such as "surfing the web" "pirating" "phishing" "flooding" "navigating websites" "streaming". Even what I am doing right now, blogging, came from the term captain's log or a naval recording of daily events, like a diary. Apparently this arose from the nature of the internet as the ocean, vast, connected, and hidden.
Most people don't agree with the hidden part because they see the web as a place to access things. However there is such a thing as the "Deep Web" or the "hidden web". This is information on the web that can't be accessed by the normal person due to passwords or protective software. While it may seem as if the majority of the web is accessible, we have to realize this is because of the distorted viewpoint. In actuality anywhere from 80 -96 percent of all information on the web is hidden.
Another thing that was said in the Vsauce video that really spoke to me was the calculated statistic that every website is, on average, 19 clicks away from any other website. That connectivity is something I've been talking about for a very long time on this blog, and why that makes the web special.
As these statistics flow in about the vastness of the information, the connectivity, and the sheer amount of activity online every single second of every single day one can easily see why the comparison was drawn to large bodies of water. However, I feel as if we are wasting. I feel like the internet right now is the child in the lunchroom who throws away the burger so that they can eat the fries. We have this extremely powerful engine that is powered by massive amounts of human activity and yet we waste our energy expended on trivialities. Can you imagine a world in which the information and effort on the web could be used in coordination effectively to solve world issues. We almost need yet another hierarchy inside the web to organize it. Adding another tier onto the pyramid of information to regulate and harness the massive quantities entering the system. I don't know how you would even begin to create statistical systems to comb through the entire web, but it would be invaluable. Just another conjecture from your captain. End of log
Wonderful Vsauce Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scWj1BMRHUA&list=UU6nSFpj9HTCZ5t-N3Rm3-HA
No comments:
Post a Comment