Would you consider the Internet a frontier?

I have no problem with anyone calling it a frontier. That’s a metaphor. You can use it as you wish.

As to it being the wild west? Again, if that’s how you perceive it, I can’t tell you you are wrong. I could only say I see it differently.

If you mean the bad guys are ahead of the good guys more than they are in the rest of society—I don’t know. Hackers aren’t necessarily bad. I don’t know what proportion are malevolent, or what portion are working on behalf of a government.

Anyway, it never occurred to me to use these metaphors. But I can certainly see how you or other people would.

@wundayatta I was just saying that the wild west was a frontier, and so was the internet because of THESE similarities. I wasnt saying it was the wild west.

The first thing I want to point out is that, yes, metaphorically, you can call the internet a frontier, just like you can call a professional field a frontier, like on the “frontiers of psychology” or “frontier of automotive advancement”. My argument wasn’t against the metaphorical usage, it was against acting as though the internet is an actual place akin to the Moon, space, the Wild West, Deep sea or anywhere else that needs to be explored or is currently untouched (and lawless) by humanity.

I suppose it could be considered a frontier in that the possibilities it contains have not yet been fully explored, but I’m not sure that I’m sold on calling it that. Yes, there are realms not yet explored, which makes it sound very frontier-like, but I believe that “frontier” is generally applied to something that has a tangible boundary, like the Wild West.

No.

My argument is that, unlike Wild West, the Internet was created, not discovered. No matter where you go on the internet, someone else had to put it there. Without people, there would be no internet.

As for the law argument, I feel this puts the internet more along the lines of illegal drugs, other communication devices, or anything else that a regulatory authority has not established rules for. Hell, early automobiles had no speed limits, and roads really were just a recommendation. Are cars a frontier as well?

Umm, @mowens we are talking about metaphors, aren’t we? How could you interpret my sentence any other way? It would utterly foolish to say that the internet is literally the wild west. It never occurred to me that you would say that, and I’m surprised it occurred to you that I would say that.

Thar’s fools gold in them thar heels!

@wundayatta I apologize, I read it fast I was on a conference call. :)

Its the final frontier.

@RocketSquid It’s a god damned metaphor you picky bastard! It wasn’t even the point I was trying to make! I was saying that I would have liked to of been part of a frontier. Built something from ground up if you will. I don’t think that we will be living on the moon anytime soon, and I feel as though my generation got jipped. I want to live on the moon damnit.

We will never live on the moon.

@mowens When we had the original argument, that WAS the point you were trying to make. Hell, I even said “What, metaphorically? That’s not really the same thing.” And you stated flatly “Yes it is”. It’s what sparked the debate, we wouldn’t even be talking about it if not for those two lines.

We were talking about whether or not we’d want to be pioneers on the moon, or maybe deep sea colonization, just some form of exploration in general. If you were talking about starting something big, why didn’t you say so instead of this long debate about whether or not the internet is actually a frontier?

@RocketSquid I have nothing to say to you that won’t get modded. :)

I would say it is a frontier of sort. There is plenty I have not explored yet.

I definitely like calling the Internet a frontier, in the sense that one can always find something new by exploring it. No matter how many bookmarks you have, you’re always going to wind up somewhere you’ve never been

@ChazMaz Never say never. We might some day live on the moon.

And… it’s one exciting frontier that doesn’t cost each of us billions of dollars to travel to and explore.

@Austinlad @Frenchfry I can’t disagree with you there. On a personal level, sure it’s a frontier. I’m debating it on a societal level.

Apparently societal is a word. Thanks Chrome

One of those things I can say, without a doubt. We will never live on the moon.

Shit, we are going back to space capsules. What will be next balloons?

Aaaw! Other countries are still gonho of the space program. It is just temporary.They will pick it up again here in the US I feel at a later date when the economy gets better. So I would say it will happen one day. But we are not here to discuss that. We are here about the internet and the frontier.. Sorry got off topic.

@ChazMaz Why do you think we wont live on the moon? Do you think we will never have any cities outside of this earth, or are you just saying the moon is not somewhere we will live?

I do not think we have or ever will have the resources or funding to get the job done.

We have not gone very far from when we first went into space in the 60’s.
And, we have come to the same conclusion we did 35 years ago. Man can not live in space for long periods of time. And the cost to accomplish very little is not worth it.

There is Sci-fi and there is reality.
I mean it can be done if that is how you wish to piss large sums of money away. But, there is too much here to concern ourselves with. And enough population will eventually die off preventing the desperate need to go to another planet to live.

Final Frontier. Total immersion in Virtual Reality. Matrix here we come.

Sorry, to go ff topic.

@ChazMaz See, I think we will get to the point of over crowding and HAVE to spend the money on it.

When we get to that point. It will be too late.

Beside, at least in the USA. The health care bill will take care of any over population issues.

Now I know the world is going to end, I actually agree with @ChazMaz , (I think)

The internet will be the end of the world as we now know it.

@YARNLADY – It’s not easy to pull you to the dark side. ;-)

Strike me down with all of your hate and your journey toward the dark side will be complete.