Net Neutrality – Government Fiat or Consumer Choice?

The topic of “Net Neutrality” has been fiercely debated recently, with the left lining up on the side of heavy government regulation and the right opting for free market forces. Who is right?

Who knows. Only time will tell. But here is a little background for your consideration.

First, let’s start with a little history. The topic is human communication, and let’s arbitrarily begin with the Pony Express, a mail delivery service started in 1860 and operating for 19 months until October, 1861. At that time, California was a new state, and had a burgeoning population and economy. The gold rush was in full bloom and economic opportunities were enormous. There was an extreme demand to reduce the time of communication between the east and west coasts, and the Pony Express was a business started to meet that need.

Using relays of riders on fast ponies, the service promised to reduce the time to deliver mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, to only 10 days. This was unheard of in those days, and the business was immensely successful.

But then a curious thing happened.

Simultaneously, a new technology, the telegraph, was being established. Stations were being built, poles planted and lines stretched, and messages transmitted by Morse code over hundreds of miles instantly. In October 24, 1861, the final connection was made and messages could be sent nearly instantaneously from coast to coast. The Pony Express ceased operation two days later, no longer economically competitive. This was no accident. An early example of technological disruption.

Fast forward to the 1990s. AT&T was the dominant telecommunications provider in the country. Voice, data, and fax traffic were distributed over their huge network of circuits. Intelligence was engineered into the network, with such things as voicemail, call waiting, call routing, and calling card charging all handled by the network. The end devices (telephones, fax machines), were dumb. Profits were huge and phone bills correspondingly large.

But then another disruption – computers and smart telephones that were capable of providing services that demanded only transport of the network.

AT&T’s business model was forced to change – there was no profit in providing intelligence in the network when the end devices were capable of doing it themselves. The network was reduced to simply routing packets of information from endpoint to endpoint, each of which was intelligent and could provide all of the functions that the customer wanted. The network became stupid, but the customers were happy with their smart devices.

Another leap in time, to 2017. We have evolved an economic landscape of wireline Internet Service Providers (such as Comcast, Cox, Charter) which provide cable or fiber internet access to our homes. At the same time, there are a number of wireless (mobile) providers (such as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T Mobile) who provide mobile cellular data services. Our high data demands (TV viewing or streaming) are met by the wireline (cable) providers. Our mobile needs (phone calls, light data needs) are provided by the wireless providers. But another technological disruption is underway.

The next generation of wireless technology, termed 5G, is soon upon us. It promises to offer high speed data access competitive with the cable providers. All of a sudden, the wireless and wireline providers will become equally capable of streaming Netflix or Sneaky Pete to your TV. The difference is that the wireline guys will be anchored to your home while the wireless ones will be able to follow you around, providing cellphone service and TV streaming wherever you like, at your pleasure. The amount of competition will increase substantially.

A recent political cartoon summed up the position of the “Net Neutrality” proponents. If we don’t opt for heavy government regulation, we will suffer from lack of access to the information we want, we will be unable to share ideas, dissent will be squashed, network speed will be sacrificed, and diversity will be out the window. This is all possible.

But not likely. In an era where social media can dethrone a Harvey Weinstein, how much chance does a nefarious ISP have to abuse us?

If the free market is allowed to function, the force of customer demand will shape the market, providing the services we want at the prices we feel are fair.

After all, it works with widgets. Why not for data packets?

Only time will tell.

Our tumultuous heavens and an invitation to view them

A dark sky map for Massachusetts to find optimum viewing sites.

Things have surely been crazy here lately. Well-merited cultural and political upheaval in the United States, ICBMs launched from North Korea, Iran meddling in Iraq’s affairs, Britain pressing ahead with her exit. But as tumultuous we think things are here on Earth, it is nothing compared to what’s going on out there.

On August 17^th of this year, the collision of two neutron stars in the galaxy NGC 4993 was detected. But that galaxy is 130 million light years away, a distance requiring that length of time for news of the event to arrive here. In real time, it occurred about when the first birds and flowers appeared on Earth.

After spending several months consuming reams of data, scientists published a flurry of papers. We learned that the collision acted as a veritable foundry, creating gold, silver, platinum and other heavy elements. While these two neutron stars were relatively small, each only somewhat heavier than our sun, it is estimated that approximately “10 to 100 times the Earth’s mass in gold was spewed out into space.” (Science News Magazine, November 11, 2017). That is one heck of a lot of gold.

Further riches emerged from the analysis of this event:

• Proof that the collision of neutron stars creates heavy elements (which had heretofore been only a theory),
• The finding that mysterious short gamma ray bursts, whose origins have been previously unknown, come from the collision of neutron stars; and,
• An improved estimate of Hubble’s constant, the rate of expansion of the universe.

But what is amazing is the confluence of human capabilities and achievements required to allow us to make these findings:

• LIGO, a gravitational wave observatory, first observed perturbations in the very fabric of space from the collision,
• Then NASA’s Fermi space telescope detected a gamma ray burst 1.7 seconds later, and;
• The Dark Energy Camera in Chile saw a burst of visible light.

Any one of these observations would not have allowed us to understand what happened, but these, in combination and with nanosecond time synchronization, created a scientific bonanza. LIGO, in particular, is a brand-new technology that only recently began to monitor for ripples in space-time, a phenomenon predicted by Albert Einstein over 100 years ago.

With this as inspiration, winter is a good time to do some star gazing of your own. The air is dry, cold, crisp, and clear and the nighttime sky begs to be seen. December offers some particularly interesting shows, the Geminid meteor shower (which just ended early this morning) and the Ursids coming up on December 22. There is only one problem, the downside to living in the densely populated northeast: light pollution.

Star gazing and meteor hunting, in particular, require dark skies for optimum viewing. Get away from cities and towns as best you can. There are great reaches of central and western Massachusetts and a band of western Rhode Island which qualify as “dark sky” areas. Residents of Cuttyhunk, an island at the end of the Elizabeth Islands, are especially fortunate, as their island home qualifies as “dark sky” with no travel required. The rest of us will have to find a spot the best we can.

You can use the Blue Marble Navigator to help. Just type your state or city into the search box and make sure that map type "night" is selected. 

For the Ursids, try to find a hilltop with an unobstructed view to the north. Ursid meteors will appear to be emanating from the dipper of the “Little Dipper.”

Take a blanket or sleeping bag with you – dress warmly and prepare to watch and wait in comfort.

You most likely won’t see a neutron star collision, but may well spot some Ursids. And if we’re particularly blessed, you might even see another Star of Bethlehem.

Peace on Earth and good will to all.