[Restayvien]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/200...e-45dbed5.html

No time to comment right now!

[icer190]

Its basically the same thing they're moving towards today anyways. With the slow, but constant, switch from copper lines to fiber-optics.

[ForbiddenKnowledge]

Not surprising, really. The only thing which will slow it down it cost - replacing current cable with fibre optic, to enable the Grid.

Ignoring the cost factor, I see no reason why this will not be the next step of the internet - the only limit is the speed of light. There have been questions raised about the current net, what with the massive increase of Tv based downloads, with copper cables being unable to keep up.

Will be very interesting to see how it progresses.

Doesn't surprise me that CERN have done it - they invented the first internet as a scientific aid, and now they need a better version.

[icer190]

Well, there is the whole idea of using the frequencies usually reserved for channels 55-60something on your T.V. for a wireless network, the US Gov. recently put those back up for auction, with a high probability of internet providers snapping them up for wireless.

[Hive Lord]

Once the fibre optics are in place, they can work on turning the internet into a Virtual Reality Network - the internet will become more like a 'real place' than ever before. 'Surfing the internet' will one day be taken more literally. One day.

[Tim the Tau]

Once the fibre optics are in place, they can work on turning the internet into a Virtual Reality Network - the internet will become more like a 'real place' than ever before. 'Surfing the internet' will one day be taken more literally. One day.

I hope so, I'm planning to write my A2 philosophy coursework on just such a thing, analysing how similarities between 'reality' and the 'net' could lead to epistemelogical issues.

[MentosMkr]

Originally Posted by Icer

Well, there is the whole idea of using the frequencies usually reserved for channels 55-60something on your T.V. for a wireless network, the US Gov. recently put those back up for auction, with a high probability of internet providers snapping them up for wireless.

I think i heard of something like that, but phone companies are buying up radio waves so that our cellphones and mobile devices well have faster and farther internet. They will be getting rid of the hot spot types of wireless we have now.

And i think its great that we maybe moving towards an internet better than what we have now. I'll be so much faster for my...pirating... :P

[Hive Lord]

Originally Posted by Tim

I hope so, I'm planning to write my A2 philosophy coursework on just such a thing, analysing how similarities between 'reality' and the 'net' could lead to epistemelogical issues.

I recommend reading the 'Otherland' series by Tad Williams. The basis of the series is a virtual reality network that convinces the user's brain that the events happening in this virtual reality are, in fact, real. Therefore, the user can feel pain, and even die, due to things that happen to them in VR. A very good read.