Implications of the Intercloud
In an announcement today regarding the progress of their so-called Intercloud, Cisco Systems made public their intention to make the future of the information more heavily regulated. However noble the intentions of Cisco, attempting to make cloud data more secure, there is a strong possibility that this could facilitate increasingly censored information as it is subject to the laws of individual countries. Even though valuable personal and corporate data does need protection from falling into the wrong hands, censorship can become a useful tool for the government in subtle propaganda.
This censorship along with growing advertising algorithms, used by services like Google and Facebook, can be dangerous to the future of information exchange. As content becomes more ‘personalized’, information will be more filtered in a way that inhibits internet/intercloud users from expanding their understanding and, in turn, creating stronger individual biases; especially coupled with heavy regulation, this can lead to a future of an extremely provincial global consciousness.
This issue is not only connected to the political divides shown in class but also has deep implications on game theory; in terms of individual decision making, skewing information can make certain societal values seem more attractive, in turn, slowly folding the national consciousness inward into a one-dimensional society.