Who controls the internet? Increasingly, the answer is large corporations and governments―a trend that's threatening digital privacy and access to information online, says web developer Tamas Kocsis. In this informative talk, Kocsis breaks down the different threats to internet freedom and shares his plan to build an alternative, decentralized network that returns power to everyday users.
In 2012, a team of researchers set a world record, transmitting 1 petabit of data―that's 10,000 hours of high-def video―over a fifty-kilometer cable, in a second. This wasn't just any cable. It was a souped-up version of fiber optics, the hidden network that links our planet and makes the internet possible. What is fiber optics and how does it work? Sajan Saini explores the vital technology.
The Internet connects billions of people and machines; it's the backbone of modern life. But tech pioneer Danny Hillis thinks the Internet just wasn't designed to grow this big―and he fears that one big cyber-attack or glitch could shut it down and take civilization with it. To head off a digital dark age, he sounds a clarion call to develop a Plan B: a parallel system to fall back on if―or when―the Internet crashes.
Designer Tea Uglow is creating a future in which humanity's love for natural solutions and simple tools can coexist with our need for information and the devices that provide us with it. "Reality is richer than screens," she says. "We can have a happy place filled with the information we love that feels as natural as switching on lightbulb."