The Internet was first conceived as a "galactic network" in 1962, and for the most part, it has come through (except for the galaxy part...). It was initially designed for military applications but who knew what it would become. The interesting part is that we are just getting warmed up.
Now, it's bad enough that our online lives have taken over our TV and movie time, and more, as laptops often end up at the dinner table, couch and even the bedroom. Sure it's irritating to have the Internet invade and interrupt our lives -- but that's really the least of our worries.
Most of us are used to the public internet -- Google, email, websurfing, YouTube, Netflix, Facebook, and Twitter. But very few have ventured to the dark side of the Internet - the underground, invisible, anonymous neighborhood. If you can avoid the neighborhood, avoid it at all costs. Really.
Now, it's bad enough that our online lives have taken over our TV and movie time, and more, as laptops often end up at the dinner table, couch and even the bedroom. Sure it's irritating to have the Internet invade and interrupt our lives -- but that's really the least of our worries.
Most of us are used to the public internet -- Google, email, websurfing, YouTube, Netflix, Facebook, and Twitter. But very few have ventured to the dark side of the Internet - the underground, invisible, anonymous neighborhood. If you can avoid the neighborhood, avoid it at all costs. Really.
The Urban Dictionary defines "underground" as:
Art, opinion or organization that exists outside of mainstream society or culture. Also known as "independent" or sometimes "counter-culture."There have always been undergrounds and ways of doing things outside of the mainstream. What is important to note is what things are moving into the underground and what formerly underground elements are becoming mainstream.
Smoking marijuana, for example, was formerly a completely underground activity but is emerging from it's hidden status to become mainstream, the last holdout being it's legal status. On February 15, 2012, four Attorneys General of the Province of British Columbia announced their support for marijuana's legalization.
Homosexuality, as another example, was "closeted" yet has become almost completely mainstreamed. Legal sanctions have emerged to grant civil unions, marriages, adoptions and of course divorce, as well as acceptance in major religious institutions. Still underground are practices and concepts such as polygamy, pornography, pedophilia, and pansexuality.
The notion of something being "underground" is usually associated with bad things, like the underground drug trade, or sex trafficking, or subversive political groups. Sometimes, however, the underground is the battlefield of resistance against tyranny, such as the French Resistance against Nazism, which actually is how we derive the modern meaning of a resistance movement. The Underground Railroad freed 100,000 slaves in the United States by getting them to non-slavery states and Canada.
There are many millions in countries under oppressive regimes who will operate in ways that are often illegal, whether to hold religious, political or cultural gatherings, or to have more than one child, or operate a business without a license.
I have been observing the role of the internet in underground movements over the last several years, including human rights events in China, the Arab Spring uprisings, and the Iranian democracy protests. The Internet carried both the more public news of these events as well as subsequent analysis, but Twitter and Facebook provided actual organizational horsepower, assisted greatly of course by cel phones and text messaging.
Recently, the role of the Internet has substantially changed from simply the facilitator of communication to the actual battlefield. Consider for a moment Wikileaks -- demonstrating the use of the Internet in divulging previously secret information -- and actually unstoppable. The Internet of today has grown to a point where it is not controllable, at least in the Western world, although some countries have been able to strangle parts of the Internet, reducing the ability of most of the public to access certain information or to maintain "illegal contact" with forbidden entities.
What most people are unaware of is that the internet has a dark side, facilitated by what's been called "darknets" or anonymity networks, whether for confidentiality, freedom or vice. This dark side is not directly accessible with average web browsers such as Firefox, Safari, Explorer or Chrome. To reach the underbelly of the net you must access networks via "freenet" or "tornet" [the onion routers].
Wikipedia: Tor's anonymity function is "endorsed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other civil liberties groups as a method for whistleblowers and human rights workers to communicate with journalists."[33] Anonymizing systems such as Tor are at times used for matters that are, or may be, illegal in some countries. For instance, Tor may be used to gain access to censored information, to organize political activities,[34] or to circumvent laws against criticism of heads of state. At the same time, Tor also allows anonymous defamation, unauthorized leaks of sensitive information, distributing copyrighted works, or illegal sexual content.[35][36]
This undernet, of course, is home to even more than Wikipedia is willing to tell you. In a recent review of current Onion server websites, the following goods and services are for sale or for free distribution:
- Wikileaks
- Silk Road, "the Amazon.com of illegal drugs" [NPR] but more like Craigslist for illegal goods and services
- Computer hacking services - ruin anyone anywhere
- Credit cards (stolen, but working, with PIN numbers) sold by "carders"
- Custom bar code printing - use them in stores to create substantial discounts at the cash register
- Website attack services - made to order "distributed denial of service" campaigns
- Drugs: from pot to LSD to prescription drugs -- all shipped via regular mail in undetectable packaging
- Contract harm or killing
- Cracked passwords for pay websites and for commercial software
- Manuals for military and guerilla operations
- Technical guides for manufacture of illegal drugs
- Fake ID, some sophisticated enough for international travel documents
After all this technical information, I’m going to have to agree with Jacques Ellul that technology is not neutral, and that it tends toward evil. Ellul wrote about technological determinism in 1954 and rewrote his work later retitled “The Technological Bluff." In his book Ellus argues that:
“an easily distracted consumer society is caught up in a rapidly developing, uncontrollable technological system . . . Every problem generates a technological solution; computers breed ever larger, more fragile, and vulnerable systems. But the solutions raise more and greater problems than they solve . . . Responsibility, contemplation, civility, and spirituality suffer.”When Ellul speaks of technology, he often is referring to "techniques" or short-cuts -- a faster, better, more efficient way of doing something. The downside that we see here is that the innocent now have access -- a shortcut -- to the dark side, to actually unspeakable evil. This includes adults who are innocent of most kinds of evil, and to children who are innocent of all. So "technique" or "technology" in this case breaches formidable boundaries, creating a means for interchange and transactions between previously completely disconnected parties.
The Internet, of course, is only a reflection of society, and as Chief Seattle said, "whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves." I wonder if he knew he was being prophetic. Because of the Internet, there is nothing that we are not exposed to, from government secrets to all manner of vices. For those of us who raise children, we have the daunting task of raising them in a world hell-bent on eradicating innocence at the earliest possible age. There is even a new marketing acronym, courtesy of Mattel -- KAGOY -- Kids are Getting Older Younger, and parents are easily bypassed as we allow them direct access to everything, everywhere, all the time. The Internet and wireless communication now facilitate the hypersexualization of our children.
From the Vancouver Sun: Peggy Orenstein, author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter argues in the film that the Disneyfied "princess culture" foisted upon little girls actually primes them for hypersexual-ization that begins at around the age of seven.
The "tween" years have essentially collapsed, and girls are pressured to begin to conform to a sexualized standard before they hit the double digits. At 8 years old "princess" clothes are replaced with mini versions of what adult women are wearing, influenced, of course by pop culture - the Beyonce/Katy Perry/Lada Gaga effect.
"It goes really quickly from being the prettiest little girl to being the hottest little girl. It's about defining yourself through externals," says Orenstein in the film. Access to the Internet means marketers can bypass parents to reach kids.
The effect on teens of this avalanche of sexualized imagery and pressure can include negative health outcomes, depression and risk-taking.The Internet did not invent evil but it sure facilitates it. The Internet removes barriers and boundaries, many of which are for our safety and human well-being. It is ironic that I deliver this message to you today about the Internet via the Internet, perhaps comforting some that this pervasive international network is just a neutral delivery tool, but alas, it is not. It is plain evil to instigate, encourage or enable others to do wrong, and it is technology that makes so much more wrong possible. When it comes to our children...Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. Mark 9:42
Thank you for reading today. I encourage to leave your comments with your thoughts on the dark side of the Internet and technology and how you cope. What are your predictions for the Internet?
Thanks for listening.
