Web 6.0 Solutions to Facilitate Interstellar Communication
In some of my previous articles I have covered some solutions to implementing up to Web 5.0 using existing technologies but now I would like to record some theoretical solutions to Web 6.0. Web 5.0 is all about planning for the future, scheduling the handling of things that are known, by extrapolation Web 6.0 must at least include the potential of dealing with the unknown. Web 6.0 needs to cope with not only time, but space and time. Let us look at how we can communicate with human colonies that live over 100 light years away from earth. If you have been watching the news lately and the Hillary Clinton email scandal you may be surprised to find out that this scandal provides the key to implementing web 6.0 technology.
To deal with web 6.0 we must dig up a dinosaur of communication technology known as half-duplex communication. Everyone uses half duplex communication even if they don’t know it. Maybe you posted a note on the refrigerator, dropped a letter in the mailbox, or sent out an email, these are all examples of half-duplex communication. You are sending out a message without any needing to know if or when there will ever be a response. This is exactly what we will need to do with our web 6.0 technology. Web 1.0 was 100% half-duplex, read-only technology so in many ways Web 6.0 is a re-incarnation of Web 1.0 technology. We will need to implement two-way communication using half-duplex technology because it could take hundreds or thousands of years for messages to be received, and even longer to receive a response. Just imagine that you are trying to communicate between your brand new computer, and a Apple II computer, it is possible, but it is going to be slow!
Technology is always improving and to communicate both ends of the communication need to be speaking the same language. Since technology is going to improve over time our message exchanges are going to need to include a huge amount of metadata. XML is the ideal language to deliver metadata but any language will do as long as the language itself can declare what language is being used in a way that the sender and recipient can agree on. The best way to do this with XML is to include a version number in each of your messages, and this version must be a version that the recipient is already aware of. What if we’re trying to send a new 3D video, but our recipient isn’t yet aware of this new protocol version that allows this data format? To solve this problem we need to not only communicate using an obsolete version, but the message must include a complete algorithm of the latest version of the communication protocol, delivered using the obsolete protocol that the recipient is aware of. When the recipient receives the message, in a format they know, they can then extract the algorithm for the latest version, and extract the message itself using this new algorithm. Using this pattern of embedding message reader algorithms in our messages encoded with a previous message reader algorithm it will be possible for the recipient to utilize the latest technologies. Implementing Web 6.0 services this way it will be possible for the recipient to understand messages which contain thousands of years worth of technological advances.
Closing the communication loop to facilitate two way communication is as simple as the reply-to button on your email client. Messages that need a response will need to include a comprehensive return address, not only to define where the response must be sent, but must also inform the recipient of what language, or version, to send the response in. The response, while encoded in that version, will need to have the same capabilities as the original message. It must be able to embed a reader in the defined return format enabling the response to include technologies that the sender of the request may not yet be aware of. This establishes two-way communication on top of a half-duplex communication technology.
This Web 6.0 technology isn’t about speed, it is about communicating over large distances in space and time. There are of course practical uses for this technology today. This design pattern can be used with cryptography where each message includes an encryption algorithm, encoded using a previous encryption algorithm, which can decrypt the current message, and encrypt the response. The algorithm language will need to be carefully chosen, it should be secure, and must be known by both the sender and recipient. This is an evolutionary communication pattern that makes it possible to communicate in a way that will be compatible with future technologies, even if those technologies are going to be separated by thousands of light-years!
