Nascent Net Neutrality

What follows is a reprint of a comment I posted on the FCC’s proceedings relating to the Net Neutrality proposals that would allow the cable company cartel to build special data lanes with privileged data transfer speeds to be used by individuals or corporations that are willing to pay a premium. Needless to say, this proposal is extremely dangerous, threatening to overturn the equality of individual voices that the internet’s level playing field currently represents. Such a ruling cannot be allowed to pass. While I am not normally prone to getting involved in legislative and political activism, I do fear for the future should we cede our rights to equal representation on the world wide web. If you too would like to submit a comment to the FCC, please use the following link and express yourself on the off chance that anyone will even read the already over 80K submissions from the public: fcc.gov/comments

To anyone reading this, I urge you to consider the following:

The primates which moved out of the trees to walk upright across the early African savannahs soon began to band together and eventually came to rule the whole world. This refers to just a single species out of the vast number of evolution’s attempts that has succeeded so spectacularly all thanks to a very remarkable innovation. This of course was language. It allowed early hominids to connect with each other in ways their cousin primates simply could not, and form teams and plan strategies, and most importantly, transmit knowledge gained in one individual’s lifetime to all the other individuals of the tribe. For example, consider that instead of waiting for evolution to give us wings, we have accumulated enough scientific and technological acumen over the many generations since (by this same process of knowledge transfer) to have surpassed the greatest flying machines of nature and have even landed on the moon. 

Just as the ability to communicate using the sounds that can be created by one’s voice enabled these great paradigm-shifting advances, I would posit that the ability to communicate using the electronic signals that zip across the globe in fractions of a second is of similar, if not even greater, importance. Take this note I am currently composing for example: you, the reader, may be anywhere on the planet Earth, and yet will have access to my thoughts within a blink of an eye of my having had them. If there is any technology that would allow us to finally come together as a global tribe, it is this. It is of monumental importance for the future of humanity, and the wellbeing and prosperity of our race. We are on an evolutionary path towards harmonious and peaceful coexistence with each other, and to this end we must transcend old notions such as “my tribe vs. your tribe”, and come to feel our collective species as being a single tribe. While the reach of my voice limits the number of people that can hear my words, thus encouraging that ancient form of tribalism, the reach of the world wide web permits all humans to interconnect and form a new culture of unity and global consciousness. I thank you for having read this far, and urge you once more to not take your responsibility in this matter lightly. Yours is a task of cosmic significance. Search deeply within your soul for the compass to guide you to the right decision. The internet is the most powerful device since uttered syllables – do not tamper with it recklessly, for the love of your children and all future generations. 

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