Free-internet activists unveil a new weapon
A war has long been brewing and in 2016 it’s going to get much hotter. Unlike in Syria or Ukraine, this struggle isn’t for territory but for control over who controls the internet. Next year a new technology will be rolled out that will push back the frontiers of the state and major companies within digital life.
The first warning shots rang out over a decade ago. “I come from cyberspace,” John Perry Barlow wrote in the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace. The “weary giants of flesh and steel” – countries, armies, governments – were warned to “leave us alone ... you have no sovereignty where we gather”.
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Governments, intelligence agencies and police forces have thought differently, of course. As the internet has become a more central and important part of our lives – a place where we shop, where we volunteer, even fall in love – there is more pressure on individual countries to keep people as safe in their online lives as they do offline. Around the world, we’ve seen revelations of more sophisticated, elaborate intelligence programmes as states try to bring the digital world to heel.
This year will see the tech-activists fighting back. You’ve probably heard of Bitcoin, but the real explosive influence of this technology will not be digital cash. The underlying technology is “blockchain”, and its real power is much more profound and important. Blockchain allows – in theory – completely decentralised networks to operate almost everything. Every member, every computer, contributes to policing every “transaction”. These transactions can form the basis for a huge number of things – from a social media network, a music distribution system or a way of voting. The key is that it cuts out the middleman: there’s no company, no authority that manages the process. The network, thanks to blockchain, manages itself.
This technology will now be thrown into the front line. The musician Imogen Heap has already distributed her latest single using blockchain technology, and projects, collectives and activists are working hard to push it into other areas. The Etherium project, with more than US$10 million (Dh36.7m) of funding, is working to make that happen. Synero is doing the same for social networks. The ambition is nothing less than to remake the internet. Blockchain will try to wrestle the Web back to what people once dreamed it could be: a Wild West where no one is in control and no one can shut you down. Don’t expect governments and companies to take this lying down. It will be a year full of digital fireworks.
Carl Miller is a digital researcher at the think tank Demos.
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A wired world without the wires
For years we have been told that we are on the brink of a new era. In this brave new world, every home appliance would be connected, with toasters, toothbrushes and televisions all communicating over Wi-Fi. So far, this has largely failed to materialise, but certain developments could mean that the Internet of Things (IoT) is actually nigh.
Perhaps the most notorious IoT device is the internet-enabled fridge – which could, say, tell your front door when you were out of milk. Why did it fail? Many of them overreach – aiming to not only tell you how fresh your eggs are but also collect your emails. Not only are these functions better carried out on a phone or tablet, the software is often vulnerable to attack; earlier this year, hackers demonstrated a method for stealing Google login creditials from a Samsung fridge.
With the rise of wearable technology, information is being produced at a staggering rate. The future will belong to companies that can follow the lead set by social media platforms and harness this data in a way useful to users. This potential has been long realised by the behemoths of technology. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, owns Nest, which manufactures smart thermostats, smoke detectors and home security cameras. In June, Apple released HomeKit. Both companies are working on improving connectivity. In October, Nest opened up its protocol to external companies, allowing them to build devices which are guaranteed to work together.
But each new device added to a home places a strain on Wi-Fi. But in November, Li-Fi, which uses light rather than radio frequencies to transmit data, was shown capable of reaching speeds 100 times faster than Wi-Fi. I’ve never wanted to read an email on a fridge but can see the use of a thermostat that stops the heating and turns off the lights when everyone’s left the house. If enough people feel the same, 2016 may be the year of the IoT.
Josh Smith is a software developer and researcher.
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Reality seen through a new lens
A piece of cardboard, some cheap plastic lenses and a fastening device. Put these together in a certain way and you have the simplest, and cheapest, way to experience virtual reality. No, this is not the stuff of science fiction, but the aptly-named “Google Cardboard”. In November, subscribers to The New York Times found one of these DIY devices in their weekend edition. They then downloaded the dedicated virtual-reality app, assembled the viewer using their smartphones for the display and were able to experience “immersive” 3-D videos.
One, called “Displaced”, follows three children whose lives were torn apart by conflict and persecution. Viewers are first taken to Ukraine where Oleg, 11, has returned to the rubble of his house in the war-torn east of the country; then we travel to South Sudan where Chuol, 9, has been forced to live in crocodile-infested swamps; and finally to Lebanon, where Hana, 12, picks cucumbers to support her Syrian refugee family.
While the videos can be viewed on a normal screen, a headset is recommended for the full experience. For example, as we hear from Oleg, we can pan around his destroyed house and survey the entire scene as if we are standing right there beside him.
It is true that the use of virtual reality is not new. In the 1950s, Morton Heilig developed the “Sensorama” cinema. Heilig is often referred to as the father of virtual reality and his machine was quite advanced in that it displayed 3-D images, had stereo sound and was enabled for body tilting. Today, virtual reality is used by militaries to simulate war games, by nuclear laboratories to prepare for emergencies and in medicine to train doctors.
But 2016 is set to be the breakout year. Google Cardboard may be crude but that’s the point: it only costs a few dollars and for the more adventurous among us, there are detailed instructions online to make your own. Technology that was once considered expensive and remote is now more accessible than ever before. More than a million of the devices were given out in The Times promotion. Other companies are also set to launch more advanced viewing devices over the coming months, including Samsung, Oculus, HTC and Sony. A Dubai-based company, Merlin Digital, has launched its own 3-D headset and US toymaker Mattel is to relaunch its iconic “View-Master”.
The advent of cheap virtual-reality viewers is set to utterly change the way we consume news, experience sports and watch films.
John Dennehy is deputy editor of The Review.
