The Net Age does not refer to the contents of this web site or to the markup language (HTML) and the WWW that rides the infrastructure of the Net. What constitutes this new age is the hardware that is physically located throughout the planet ̶ transcending geographical, political, juridical, cultural and linguistic borders ̶ linking devices that provide a network of connections that enables communication.
Similar in fashion to the invention of the printing press. It was the new technology that ushered a cultural revolution that eventually led to the Renaissance that transformed the politics and religions of Europe. The hardware was at the core of change. The printing and distribution of copies of the Bible at the outset were merely the result of the technological invention. The physical tool was the source of an evolutionary process that promoted literacy, individualism and the reshuffling of the hierarchy of power.
The web is currently the most popular markup language used in the world. That doesn’t mean that several other hidden networks don’t exist. Most of them are likely related to state’s covert military and surveillance networks. As such, the web has evolved into a preferred tool of overlapping totalitarian surveillance systems that is corrupting the nature of communication and the sovereignty of the individual.
Powerful search engines use a self-serving mathematical justification of algorithms to promote the most popular pages not the content of the most relevant or innovative. These algorithms serve to enhance the scope and reach of already dominant systems and buries deep in its page rank creativity and progress.
However, the nature of the universe is such that any totalitarian tendency is doomed to failure and will eventually degenerate. The third law of motion states that to every emerging force/action there will be an equal opposing force/reaction. If this theory holds true we can expect that a novel code/language already exists.
Human beings are creatures of habit. It will be hard to give up a system that is so pervasive and convenient. However, necessity is the mother of invention and deep in the abyss of the Internet wilderness a new markup language will spring to life and spread throughout the planetary network.
