Rebuilding the Internet #Dgst101

(Disclaimer: I am not a great artist so please excuse the terrible drawing of a human head as well as the lack of different colors for my representation; I am currently at my grandmother’s house and do not have access to many materials.)

I imagine the internet as a living entity; specifically a human being in this case. While the internet is not truly alive, it shares many of the characteristics of life that we humans possess. The internet is constantly learning and growing. It processes new information to be more efficient and is updated regularly with new software to be better. Our readings from this week talked about how the internet is not alive, but possesses lifelike qualities. My reimagined internet just takes this idea to its final stage.

I believe that the internet of the future will be heavily run by artificial intelligence. Human influence on the inner workings of the internet will be far less than machine influence, and I believe the internet may one day be considered close to a living thing. The way that the internet grows due to data and software is like a person going to school and eating food. We work out and exercise so that we remain healthy and can function more. The internet is bolstered by new platforms, information, and software that allows it to do the same.

In my reimagined internet, I chose to use the head of a person to represent the internet. Computers and phones represent the brain, or what powers all of the other platforms. The eyes take in information from platforms like YouTube or Netflix, and sends this information to the brain. The mouth is also for consumption, but can be used to express information, like over social media. The ears take in audio like music or news, and it once again is delivered to the brain. Once this information reaches the brain, it can be converted into different data that can be outputted to other parts of the head. Each internet platform inputs data to the brain, which in turn gets outputted in a different form. This is exactly like the internet. Data is uploaded from one area, and can be received in multiple other areas.

I believe that the internet will eventually be seen as a living organism. While it is not in that form currently, I think that it still operates as one. It processes information and grows and becomes more efficient. Additionally, remains in use independently from users, so it is able to function on its own without aid, like a human. I think that the eventual inclusion of artificial intelligence to the internet will drastically change the current digital dynamic, and I am excited to see what the internet evolves into.