Full Title:
A TECHNOLOGICAL RENAISSANCE -- Peer-to-peer, Amorphous, Non-Internet, Solar-charged, IP Walkie-talkie Networks
History:
I have managed to work on this idea some more, hopefully making it clearer and defining my terms better. I first published this idea at JAEGER RESEARCH and the MIND-X, about 10 years ago, so I hope some of you will feel I have brought this UP to at least the level of "mad science" by now. I don't know if anyone was working on something like this when I first put it up, but I do know a company was capitalized to the tune of some $10-20 million supposedly to produce such devices as described here. This was about 5 - 7 years ago, and so far I haven't heard much from them, or anyone else. So what's going on? Pisses me off that nothing seems to ever get done. Let's find the fucks that are stopping everything and get rid of them!
Introduction:
One of the ways we could improve this world might be to better network the seven billion brains in existence. Many of these brains (people) cannot afford modern telecommunications, but if altruistic computer, network and telecommunications experts -- along with Elon Musk-type investor/entrepreneurs -- took it upon themselves to independently build and deploy peer-to-peer, amorphous, self-repairing, non-Internet networks, such devices could be free beyond the initial purchase price of the device (perhaps as low as $50). But first, what the hell is a "peer-to-peer, amorphous, non-Internet, solar-charged, IP Walkie-talkie Network?
Definitions:
Let's take the worlds in reverse order:
o A NETWORK is a bunch of people, computers or devices connected together so they can communicate with each other.
o A WALKIE-TALKIE is a hand-held, portable, two-way communication device which runs on batteries and transmits through the air or ground.
o IP stands for Internet Protocol and means basically the programming that controls how packets of data are transferred over a network.
o SOLAR-CHARGED means batteries that can be re-charged from solar cells.
o NON-INTERNET means it does NOT use or run over the Internet or Web.
o AMORPHOUS mean it changes shape continuously, like a cloud.
o PEER-TO-PEER means each communication device talks to each other communication device without going through any central office, control tower or network, such as the Internet, cable, phone or satellite system.
Thus peer-to-peer, amorphous, non-Internet, solar-charged, IP Walkie-talkie Network would be a network of walkie talkies that give and receive communication between them without the necessity of using the Internet, phone lines, micro wave lines or any other "established" or metered network (hereafter "IP Walkie-talkies" and collectively, "IP Walkie-talkie Network").
Such an IP Walkie-talkie Network would not only be Metcalfe-utilitarian, it would be legally indestructible by a profit-motivated communications Establishment. By "Metcalfe-utilitarian" it is meant such a network would follow Metcalfe's Law, which states: the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users (nodes) in the system (n2).
Benefits:
Thus, if suddenly 10 million people had IP Walkie-talkies that passed normal or encrypted IP packets to each other -- the nearest nodes first, then fanning out to other nodes -- communication corporations (like Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, etc.) would be hard-pressed to extract the residual fees (monthly bills) they claim they need to amortize bank loans for R&D. Again, such a service would be free and it might be more secure from a PATRIOT Act-infested government as it would never go through any Central Offices (COs) or control towers. Not only would more people be able to afford such a network, it would be more difficult for anti-Constitutional elements in the government and corporatocracy to practice industrial espionage over such a peer-to-peer, amorphous network.
Consider, anytime two intelligent people -- especially scientists, technologists and even political strategists -- talk to each other through standard networks with COs, their ideas are subject to covert confiscation. Hey, isn't this what the NSA is all about -- covert data collection? To the degree ideas are confiscated (stolen) they can be patented by agents of the corporatocracy and esquires of the court (lawyers). Ideas, not in tangible form can't be copyrighted or patented, but it's a short step from a brilliant "idea whose time has come" to tangible paper which the corporatocracy can then patent. The corporatocracy can, and probably does, use any money it "saves" on idea-theft to pay lawyers to file patents and donate to political campaigns. In other words, purchase congressmen to enact "laws" to make sure entrepreneurs are locked out from developing or deploying any ideas that would jeopardize the status quo or corporate profits.
So an early strategic step in making this a better world might be the erection of a peer-to-peer, IP Walkie-Talkie network that is as free as solar-charged walkie talkies. From potentially 7 billion brains -- securely networked from the prying senses of those entities that thwart change for the sake of preserving profits and power -- a true technological renaissance might spring forth.
How IP Walkie-talkies Could Work:
Here is how IP Walkie-Talkie phones -- what might someday morph into what we could cal "Universal Data Transmitters" -- could be created.
Analog walkie talkies can transmit 3 - 10 miles with ease. The transmission, however, is usually unreliable and subject to atmospheric conditions. If such walkie talkies were to be converted to transmitting bits, just as the through-air analog TV system was recently converted to through-air bits ("digital TV"), the quality should be excellent, as is the quality now for digital TV. If this could be done, I see no reason why many people could not talk to their families and friends for free, as I would wager most people we talk to every day are within 3 - 10 miles. Why pay $40 for a broadband Internet connection and then another $25 for an IP phone, or an $80 per month phone bill for twisted-pair phone service?
The challenge is how to get these new IP Walkie-talkies phones to hop-scotch large distances, say talk to a friend in California (CA) from New York (NY). Let's break down the problem by assuming the following factors as a starting point:
1) A suitably dense IP Walkie-talkie phone network has already been established.
2) New York to California is about 3,000 miles.
3) Each IP Walkie-talkie phone transmits to a 10-mile radius.
4) It will thus take 300 relays to get each IP Walkie-talkie voice packet to CA.
If the initiating IP Walkie-talkie "knew" which direction the destination IP Walkie-talkie was, it could concentrate a higher powered "ping" out to search for the first, MOST distant, relays on the road to California, what we might call the "direction line" or NY-->CA.
One way the "direction line" could be established might be by using a combination of extended zip codes + 4 digits as phone numbers. Thus, someone living in Manhattan, NY might have a phone number of 10016-1587-3276 and their friend in Santa Monica, CA would have a phone number of 90405-3765-8762 -- the first five digits being the zip code, the second four digits being the zip code extension and the last four digits being the unique ID of the IP Walkie-talkie user.
The originating IP Walkie-talkie could do a quick GPS orientation, and then, after the destination phone number is entered, it would be able to immediately orient to the exact direction it had to broadcast maybe 80% of its signal strength, such being the direction being along the "direction line" to zip code 90405-3765 or Santa Monica, CA.
Along this "direction line" there will be an amorphous network of other IP nodes that will perform three functions. They will receive packets, pass packets and originate packets. The node that is most distant from the originating IP Walkie-talkie, yet tangentially closest to the "direction line", would be activated. Upon activation, this node would simply "pass packets" to the next node that is MOST distant from the second node, yet CLOSEST tangentially to the "direction line." This signal relay would continue for another 298 nodes until the originating IP Walkie-talkie in NY connected with the receiving IP Walkie-talkie in CA.
Long distance, two-way communication would thus take place, cost nothing to the originating and receiving terminals (except the initial price of the phone and batteries).
As the network grew denser, the probability that MORE relay nodes CLOSER to the universe of all user "direction lines" would exist, per Metcalfe's Law. At some point, the IP Walkie-talkie network node density would even allow plentiful alternate data routes. As alternate data routes developed, communications could become more secure, as portions of sentences, words and even letters could be packetized and sent out randomly by direction and even time -- in other words, a packet containing the first part of a sentence, could be randomly delayed and sent out after a packet containing the last part of a sentence, creating a "temporal encryption."
Manufacturing and Deployment Challenges:
I see no reason all or part of the above described system could not work.
Its deployment could be done by creating blue prints for the manufacture of IP Walkie-talkie phones and then placing them into the public domain. Any entrepreneur that wished could then manufacture the phones. Many entrepreneurs would be encouraged to manufacture such phones and no patents or trade marks would be permitted on any of the phones. This manufacturing technology would be completely open source for the pubic benefit and would be free to the public users once an IP Walkie-talkie phone was purchased.
The way this system may have to be rolled out would be covertly and gradually. Someone, or some group, could design and manufacture the IP Walkie-talkie phones -- or figure out a retro-fit and/or add-on(s) for off-the-shelf existing cell phones. These IP Walkie-talkie phones could be put into initial use by small groups of families, friends and associates. They could be sold and disseminated over the Internet and through multi-level organizations, such as AMWAY. The idea would be to get as many IP Walkie-talkie phones into actual use across the nation (and world) as possible before their existence and viability was generally understood by the mass communications Establishment and government who might attempt to suppress the technology -- as they did to Nikola Tesla's technologies. Remember, the first IP phones were absolutely free and then the telecommunications industry removed them from the market. I actually had one of these original IP phones in the mid 1990s. All I did was purchase a phone that plugged into the mic input and the speaker out put of my computer. I then was able to call my friends in distant states and talk to them for free over the Internet. After a year or so, this free IP phone system was discontinued and suddenly companies like VONTAGE, VOIPYOURLIFE and VOIP-1 emerged charging monthly fees. The major communications companies -- Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, etc. -- soon followed suit with "triple play" bundles of Internet-cable-phone and monthly bills have been over $90 ever since.
New Opportunities for the Profit-motivated:
IP Walkie-walkie phones -- WHICH DO NOT EVEN USE THE INTERNET, THUS NO INTERNET SERVICE CHARGES -- could develop into universal communication devices. There should be no intention to put the existing communications companies out of business, but some good stiff competition would be good for everyone. After all, do we want to live in society monopolized by the profit-motive and government force, or do we want to live in a system that allows free markets to support entrepreneurs who create worthwhile NEW products and services that set new standards of living.
If we as a society build rudimentary technologies (such as communications, electricity, waste and water systems) and then continually milk them for all the profit we can get out of them -- but fail to create NEW products and services, with new profit potentials -- how is humanity to advance?
We need to create viable rudimentary systems, perfect them as much as possible, and then commoditize them in the direction a minimal expense to society. THEN we need to free up capital and allocate investment dollars to new technologies, higher goals where, again, the profit motive can, and should, be rewarded anew. Otherwise civilization will be in a rut, we will stagnate as rocket scientist, Robert Zubrin, says in his must-read book, ENTERING SPACE. Worse, a hated plutocracy will develop that does little more than exploit existing technology for every drop of profit and then rightly worry about ITS security in the name of the "general security." Hey, welcome to today's world.
So if IP Walkie-talkie networks of hundreds of thousands or millions of people can be developed, these early users could protect each other from security-paranoid government and corporate raiders. If the corporate-police descend on someone's house to confiscate their IP Walkie-talkie phone under some new "Phone Security Law," hundreds or thousands of IP Walkie-talkie users could suddenly rally around the victim's house and cause a (social) media sensation. Their protest could be along the lines of: "What kind of government -- or corporate lobby -- would NOT allow citizens the right to freely communicate with each other for free and in privacy?"
So there are some thoughts on a proposed new industry, IP Walkie-talkie phone -- or what could someday be called "Universal Data Transmitters". If you see merit to any of this, I hope you will pass this paper on to technical people that could (help) make this a reality.
Totally free communications and data transmission are a gateway for the development, and more importantly, the DEPLOYMENT of free, renewable electrical energy; and such free energy is a gateway to a civilization that can out-expand the suppressive, vested interests of past centuries that have held us all back from the glorious futures we deserve.
James Jaeger
