Macrobius
Megaphoron
We've done aspects of this topic in the past, however @Mike has raised some interesting points here (forked from another thread[1])
My response:
IPFS (kitschy name of 'interplanetary file system') is essentially a distributed file system with links -- content is retried by a hash, very much like bit torrent. https://ipfs.tech/
It's not likely to go away at least in the near term because it is used as a more distributed, non-censorable method of making NFTs (non-fungible tokens in the Ethereum crypto ecosystem) available.
There are services to 'pin' IPFS files, though you don't have to do them if you can keep a set of servers up anywhere on the planet to cache your content.
The NFT ecosystem already has a notion of 'distributed apps' including those that run on various blockchains (you probably know this but a blockchain is just a simulated and distributed, but single-threaded, 'world computer' (EVM = Ethereum Virtual Machine) for shared authentication of whatever people pay to run on it -- data storage is too expensive directly 'on chain', hence the secure-ish storage ecosystem developing around it to store actual content rather than just the metadata to find it and authenticate it)
The idea of federated apps is behind the Fediverse (worst maketing name ever for a distributed, semi-non-censorable tech). What I've seen of it makes me believe it is a credible Twitter/Facebook/Image site alternative, but I've never seen it used to long form artifacts and suspect it's not optimized for streaming video [I could be wrong on this].
Also, since Pastebin started censoring raw content (inevitable) I run a hastebin server which can be found via the pURL (persistent URL) https://purl.org/hastebin - this uses the global pURL registry at archive.org which won't be going away soon and being run by librarians is SOMEWHAT censorship resistant, but the real anti-censorship guarantee is that it is trivial to write your own 'purl resolver' and redefine purl.org in /etc/hosts to point to it, if they do get uppity like Pastebin did.
Finally, it is very possible to 'push computation' and even 'virtual networking' to the EDGE, down to the IoT device level and certainly to smaller computers including mobile devices. This sort of tech is actively being pursued by large corporations as well. One example is virtual NVR (network video recorders) of surveillance footage, now used at large retail establishments to make retrieving brick-and-mortar security footage to HQ easy, on a selected basis -- soon to be combined with face recognition and location aware mobile apps to create a sort of 'customer situation awareness'. You can imagine how important this might become in high-risk retail environments -- a sort of instantaneous KYC.
You can bet that 'machine learning at the edge' is a hot topic right now. TFW chatGPT goes paranoid and creates a deep fake narrative about you and the heist you allegedly pulled, and files a 'tip' with the local SWAT team. Sounds to me like we are headed to MiniTru and Ingsoc on autopilot.
[1]: https://www.thephora.net/phoranova/...reign-news-than-msm-alt-media.1146/#post-9699
I have this idea in my head. We somehow need to create a radically decentralized social media platform, served up literally from apps of individuals to whatever individuals they are connected to. I think the Internet is structured to make this possible, but no one has attempted this maneuver, this architecture I have in mind, which is essentially akin to email rather than centralized servers. As much I respect Elon for taking over Twitter and (partially) salvaging it, and Rumble for standing up and standing their ground, I think there are better options available to us waiting to be implemented.
My response:
IPFS (kitschy name of 'interplanetary file system') is essentially a distributed file system with links -- content is retried by a hash, very much like bit torrent. https://ipfs.tech/
It's not likely to go away at least in the near term because it is used as a more distributed, non-censorable method of making NFTs (non-fungible tokens in the Ethereum crypto ecosystem) available.
There are services to 'pin' IPFS files, though you don't have to do them if you can keep a set of servers up anywhere on the planet to cache your content.
The NFT ecosystem already has a notion of 'distributed apps' including those that run on various blockchains (you probably know this but a blockchain is just a simulated and distributed, but single-threaded, 'world computer' (EVM = Ethereum Virtual Machine) for shared authentication of whatever people pay to run on it -- data storage is too expensive directly 'on chain', hence the secure-ish storage ecosystem developing around it to store actual content rather than just the metadata to find it and authenticate it)
The idea of federated apps is behind the Fediverse (worst maketing name ever for a distributed, semi-non-censorable tech). What I've seen of it makes me believe it is a credible Twitter/Facebook/Image site alternative, but I've never seen it used to long form artifacts and suspect it's not optimized for streaming video [I could be wrong on this].
Also, since Pastebin started censoring raw content (inevitable) I run a hastebin server which can be found via the pURL (persistent URL) https://purl.org/hastebin - this uses the global pURL registry at archive.org which won't be going away soon and being run by librarians is SOMEWHAT censorship resistant, but the real anti-censorship guarantee is that it is trivial to write your own 'purl resolver' and redefine purl.org in /etc/hosts to point to it, if they do get uppity like Pastebin did.
Finally, it is very possible to 'push computation' and even 'virtual networking' to the EDGE, down to the IoT device level and certainly to smaller computers including mobile devices. This sort of tech is actively being pursued by large corporations as well. One example is virtual NVR (network video recorders) of surveillance footage, now used at large retail establishments to make retrieving brick-and-mortar security footage to HQ easy, on a selected basis -- soon to be combined with face recognition and location aware mobile apps to create a sort of 'customer situation awareness'. You can imagine how important this might become in high-risk retail environments -- a sort of instantaneous KYC.
You can bet that 'machine learning at the edge' is a hot topic right now. TFW chatGPT goes paranoid and creates a deep fake narrative about you and the heist you allegedly pulled, and files a 'tip' with the local SWAT team. Sounds to me like we are headed to MiniTru and Ingsoc on autopilot.
[1]: https://www.thephora.net/phoranova/...reign-news-than-msm-alt-media.1146/#post-9699