IoT can run on LAN, and anyone who uses it should be self-hosting.

That being said, most people just trade privacy for convenience by signing up for corporate services. And that gives the tech companies more leverage over those people because “upload your ID or else your alexa won’t work.”

Tech companies have no qualms with making your things non-functional unless you give in to their stipulations…

For now? Hope the government doesn’t ban VPNs, and ISPs don’t lock down “unverified” connections.

Contact your congresspeople and let them know how you feel about ID verification, and why it’s dangerous to democracy.

Maybe get a mesh radio and learn about nodes, so that you have at least some form of communication if they lock down the web. Maybe a ham radio too, but be aware than many jurisdictions require a license to transmit anything (passive receiving is usually fine).

Download a local copy of everything you think you would want post-internet. Wikipedia, project gutenberg, ifixit, etc.

If you like your neighbors, consider discussing a network of wifi repeaters or ethernet cables to build your own LAN/intranet in the hypothetical post-internet scenario.

If you still use streaming services, transition to self-hosting local copies of all the media you care about.

If you have millions billions of dollars, consider starting your own ISP or VPN server, building out your own fiber-optic infrastructure, maybe launching your own satellites into space, with a commitment to open-source, decentralized platforms and anonymity?

Or contribute to a tech co-op that might eventually be able to implement something similar.

Other than that, all you can do is raise awareness about how easy it would be for an oppressive government to shut down the internet, or even just lock it down to any “unverified”/unidentifiable users…

Technological development reached a plateau, but shareholder value still needed to grow!

I warned about this before the election. People thought I was crazy…

Republicans have literally been talking about this for years…

If they’re removing the people’s only legal means of action/recourse, then the people will eventually resort to other means.

You’re totally right about the power imbalance, though. So many keyboard warriors conveniently ignore that…

Literally, the Constitution gives us the power to kill the fascists currently in power

Does it? How, by giving them papercuts with that crumbly old document? And you expect them to just… idly let you do this?

That’s a misconception. NATO articles don’t apply when a NATO member attacks a NATO member.

If Europe does the right thing, they would support Canada, and if they’re remotely intelligent they would kick the US bases out of Europe. But neither of those things would be because of NATO.

For straight white men, it’s been that way for at least a decade now…

Right, this wasn’t an endorsement of him. There are perfectly legitimate arguments you can make about why he’s an idiot and why him being in his current position is a danger to public health.

But saying “he’s wrong because he thinks disease is caused by environmental toxins and poor nutrition” is missing a lot of nuance, and is also harmful.

Microplastics? BPAs? PTFEs? So many other examples: from papermills, textiles, coal plants, fertilizers, meat production. All these can have harmful effects when concentrated near population centers, especially upstream of water sources.

I get that RFK jr. isn’t talking about those things, and probably thinks they’re fake. But those are all environmental toxins, and when you summarily dismiss the idea of toxins causing disease, these all get caught in the crossfire.

They need people to produce more babies to fuel the wars that they keep starting to keep the population in check.

Checkmate, liberal! /s

Those imbalances are claimed to be caused by poor nutrition and exposure to environmental toxins and stressors. (In his book, Kennedy erroneously labels this as “miasma theory,” but that is a different theory that suggests diseases derive from breathing bad air, vapors, or mists from decaying or corrupting matter.

I mean, let’s not pretend that poor nutrition, environmental toxins and stressors, polluted air, and volatile gases don’t contribute to disease.

Some diseases are bacterial, yes. RFK Jr.'s denial of germ theory is asinine, and his comprehension of the ideas he promotes is probably tenuous and inane. I’m not claiming that he’s on to something.

But let’s not lie to ourselves. Let’s not fall for the stupidity by running clear to the opposite end of the stupidity.

Disease is complex and often precipitated by multiple factors. And environmental, toxicological, nutritional, and nervous factors absolutely do contribute to disease.

Edit: I normally don’t get butthurt about getting downvotes, but y’all downvoting this comment really need to think with your braincells for a minute…

I’m not too buggered about it. I mean bothered.

I wasn’t being defensive, I was merely dismantling your argument piece-by-piece.

And you can’t be bothered to engage with my argument? I addressed yours in detail, and you can’t even come up with a response? Sounds like someone who knows they’ve lost the argument, if maybe only subconsciously.

the myriad ways you’ve misread and misunderstood my comment

What way did I misread or misunderstand? Was it when you told me to sign up for the brownshirts? Or when you questioned whether we “need or are entitled to” a decentralized internet infrastructure?

I don’t know, if you think I misread those things, then maybe the problem is that you didn’t elaborate them very well. Cause it seemed pretty clear that you were hostile towards the idea of a decentralized internet infrastructure.

go ahead and keep believing whatever it is you’re believing right now, it doesn’t bother me a bit.

Oh, so you didn’t read anything I said? Or you didn’t understand any of it? And you can’t be bothered to read something that might force you to reexamine your beliefs?

And then you tell me to keep on believing whatever I believe? As if I’m the one being obtuse. That’s more projection on your part.

You know, plugging your ears isn’t any way to win an argument. That’s what fascist sympathizers do. This is exactly like trying to explain climate change to a republican.

The person you’re replying to is not a serious person. See below where they questioned whether we “need or are entitled to” a decentralized internet infrastructure…

They clearly don’t understand ISPs, and they seem to think their VPN and peer-to-peer networks would still work if the government decided to intervene by shutting down VPN and proxy servers, or if their ISP decided to throttle any connection it couldn’t fully analyze and link to a verified identity.

And then they told me that I should join the brownshirts… for… discussing the need for decentralized infrastructure? They seemed to assume I only want that so I can watch youtube and play games, which is kind of weird. But the weirdest part is that they were virtue signaling about “persecuted people” and “dissidents,” as if a decentralized infrastructure wouldn’t directly benefit those groups…

Damn dude, you don’t have to get so defensive.

Who says we need or are entitled to a decentralized replacement for the modern internet?

This is a conversation about how to circumvent government surveillance and censorship. If you can’t see the connection to a need for decentralized internet structure, that’s on you.

Also, you said this:

I don’t have to worry about my ISP either because I live in a still-civilized country, but yeah, if they really lock it down at that level that’s going to be tough,

Wow, good for you, your government isn’t rapidly implementing a surveillance state like seemingly most of the world is right now. That’s not much of an argument for why other people don’t need decentralized communication, though. Check your freaking privilege at the door.

You also said this:

There are countermeasures and workarounds though. VPN, mesh networking, borrowing somebody else’s wifi or mobile data hotspot, finding open networks.

In case you didn’t know, mesh networking is decentralized communication. I merely pointed out that it isn’t robust enough at this time to fully replace an internet connection, meaning it would be impractical to implement the fediverse over one.

Furthermore, VPNs can increase anonymity, but they still rely on a connection to their servers. Which means, under the current infrastructure, that you’re still relying on your ISP. If the ISP decides to throttle all connections going through VPN servers, or if the government shuts down VPN servers, then you’re still fucked. So that’s not a workaround for the necessity of decentralized internet.

And, “borrowing somebody else’s wifi or mobile data hotspot, finding open networks” still means going through ISPs, and the point of “age verification” which we’re discussing is so that they can still identify you regardless. So that’s not a solution.

Lastly, you also said this:

Maybe we’ll get to the point where we need point to point links, pirate satellites, datajacking ourselves into communication lines, who knows.

In other words, you agree that there is a point which might necessitate decentralized internet infrastructure. Unless you fail to understand the topic entirely.

Communication can be accomplished with much less, and necessity is the mother of invention.

Yes, communication can be accomplished, but to what extent depends on your technological capabilities. Mesh radios work for simple text-based messaging with limited bandwidth. Ham radios work for voice. Both of which can be dangerous when a government is actively hostile to radio communications, but there are ways to minimize the risk.

But in the context of maintaining the fediverse when the government tries to eliminate anonymous web use, neither of those things are a replacement.

You might be able to extend a LAN-based intranet by daisychaining wifi receivers, but how far? It’ll probably be limited to a few houses or a neighborhood. It won’t enable global communication like the modern internet does.

You could pass around USBs to share wikipedia articles and similar databases, but there’s no real-time access/communication and this locks out anyone not in the “in-group,” so it’s not a full replacement either.

So in order to maintain the fediverse and anonymity, you still need some sort of internet infrastructure, which currently is dominated by ISPs and cell carriers. Which, if the government forces them to identify users through verification, will no longer be anonymous. Hence, the need for decentralized internet infrastructure.

We managed to communicate quite effectively by having computers intermittently screeching at each other through a phone line for several decades.

Okay, so you want to go back to using dial-up? Over landline? Is that what you’re proposing? Because even that goes through centralized carrier services which could easily be co-opted by an authoritarian government. Not a solution for the topic at hand.

This discussion is about the modern internet being cut off while they try to identify and root out persecuted populations and dissidents against the regime.

Get off your high horse. Yes, the discussion is about the modern internet being cut off. And you can’t see how that relates to necessitating a decentralized internet infrastructure to replace the one being locked down?

Those “persecuted populations and dissidents against the regime” can only benefit from a decentralized internet, and you’re throwing them out like some token virtue-signaling buzzwords to make yourself sound morally superior, when the argument you’re making actively hurts those people by making it easier for the government to root them out in the absence of decentralized communication infrastructure.

Nobody said it was going to be fun and you will still be able to freely watch all the youtube your bored brain can handle while streaming video games on another screen. If that’s your expectation, you might as well go sign up for the brownshirts right now

I can only assume this is projection on your part. Is the only use you can think of for a decentralized internet so you can watch youtube and stream video games? Really? Is your imagination that limited?

Funny that you should call me a brownshirt, when you’re the one who began your comment by questioning whether we’re even “entitled” to a decentralized internet. In the context of a discussion about the government’s assaults on anonymity. Do you not realize how fascist that sounds?

What they say:

“Yes, MKUltra has been cancelled and declassified.”

What they don’t say:

“The successor to MKUltra is still highly classified and very much not cancelled.”

“Welcome to your eight-hour flight. If you would like to use wifi, please sign up for only $40 per hour. Enjoy your voyage!”

As far as I’m aware, mesh networks don’t have the bandwidth for large data transfers. They can send packets of a thousand or so bytes tops, so even with compression you’d barely be able to send/receive anything.

You might be able to do SSH and run a few commands remotely, but with really high latency.

For a decentralized replacement for the modern internet, you would need major infrastructure like cables and/or cell towers and satellites.

When I was a kid, I wondered why there were Gamorreans in Star Wars, but not Sodomites…

Wow, TIL…

I thought it just meant “bothered”…