The internet as back-up.

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A good case can be made to claim that redundancy was, from the inception of the internet, one of its main purposes. Though recent histories have called into question the claim that Arpanet was designed as a security measure, there's probably still more than a grain of truth to the story. And that being the case, we might say that the idea of redundancy is inherent to the internet's very existence.

Over six years ago I reported on someone who, via Google's cache, found his entire web site that had been lost due to a server crash. I'm sure that since then others have reported similar experiences. But in this column's case the issue isn't one of the web acting as back-up. Instead, what interests me here is the fact that the web is filled with so many pages that seem so similar to others, and the ambivalence I feel toward that situation.

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Go to: Inventing wheels in cyberspace.