Ok, The Internet Is Like An Ocean, All Right?

I have tried, I have really tried, to explain the internet to the US DoD. I have said it was a flock of birds, some starfish, even a samizdat movement (ok that was Wikileaks twitter). Let’s try again. Remember when people used to “surf the net”? Well, that’s because it’s kind of like an ocean.

Everything in the ocean is interconnected, no matter how far apart they may appear to be, even if they have never met. The ocean is full of happy little individuals and communities that may veer off and head to where you are if you attract attention. Blood in the ocean attracts attention. It could attract a battery of barracudas, or something big and dark that you have never heard of.

All of the happy activists, hacktivists, open source programmers etc., peacefully working away at what they do have all had their attention diverted by the explosions around that sparkly little fish Wikileaks. People who usually only come here to work on Tor, EFF, anti-ACTA, anti-censorship, human rights, free internet, darknet, Pirate Bay, or just to hang out at any of the chans, have all wandered over to take a look.

This ocean abhors a vacuum. And it is full of problem solvers, all watching the attacks on Wikileaks and figuring out how those attacks can be counteracted next time. Yes, there’s already a next time. See Napster. And like with Napster, next time will be a mutation that can defend against anything that worked against Wikileaks this time. Remember? Untraceable source? NewWikileaks doesn’t need an “editor in chief”, it doesn’t need to involve the mainstream media, and it certainly doesn’t need to redact.

The internet is free. It says what it thinks. It debates. It cooperates. It is obsessive. It doesn’t sleep. It mutates. It is everywhere. It is nowhere. It is the alternative if Wikileaks is destroyed.