Go thoughtfully in the knowledge that all interplanetary
communication derives from the modulation of radiated energy, and
sometimes a planet will be between the source and the destination.
Therefore rely not on end-to-end connectivity at any time, for the
universe does not work that way.
- S. Burleigh; Desiderata of Interplanetary Internetworking, May, 2001. |
The growth rate of the Internet exceeds that of any previous technology.
Measured by users and bandwidth, Internet has been growing at a rapid
rate since
its conception, on a curve geometric and sometimes exponential.
Today,
the Internet is growing exponentially in
three
different
directions
-- size,
processing
power,
and software sophistication -- making it the fastest growing technology
humankind has ever created:
- Size. The graphs
in the historical statistics section show the exponential
rate of growth in the number of people that use the Internet. Soon more than half the world's population will have access to the Internet.
- Power.
As first appreciated at the Dartmouth AI Conference
in 1956, computer processors and storage continue to double in power and capacity
about every 18 months, providing steadily more powerful computers for use by
increasing sophisticated software.
- Functionality. Software applications from routing
programs to browser applications continually
build on previous technology to become more sophisticated with
every release, continuously evolving to incorporate new features and capabilities.