Internet access. A potential problem of course arises if a cost structure based on content is implemented. The problem is that priority of service is likely to follow the amount of revenue; it may become more likely that your speed of response to Web queries will become dependent on the traffic generated by the middleman or content provider being accessed. Some Internet carriers would then apparently take their control prerogatives to more intrusive levels.

In an October 19, 2007 wire from Associated Press, Peter Svensson reported that Comcast, a cable television and Internet access provider was limiting the volume of traffic that could be delivered between certain Web services sites and their customers. The news report suggested that the manner in which this limitation was accomplished was with Comcast software insinuating itself into the protocol stack. Some traffic was slowed down while other was kept normal. Svensson commented that this is akin to a telephone operator intervening in conversations. As we have noted previously, in a voice-based conversation between two people, trust related to the conversation itself is partially enabled through biometric voice recognition between the two conversing parties. In a digital exchange, the fact that the mechanism attributed to Comcast can actually be used suggests a problem in the network protocols’ abilities to authenticate the identities of the conversing parties. This is obviously a deficiency to be addressed in the mutational progression of the network and its derivative mechanisms.

Another driving factor in the evolutionary development of the Web is the applicability of social ecosystem consequences to Web transactions. The relative anonymity or ambiguity of the identity of the various parties to such transactions makes it difficult if not impossible to apply normal rules of engagement. The application of time based, age based or location based constraints is extremely problematic, and this same identity ambiguity makes the application of after the fact sanctions difficult as well. Consider the fact that a significant fraction of e-mail traffic on the Web today is spam; totally unsolicited, highly suspect messages from not just anonymous, but often fraudulent senders. In a similar vein, consider the fact that stolen merchandise can be more readily traded across the Web than through previously used illegal distribution channels. If one throws in the threat posed by sexual predators soliciting contact through the myriad interaction facilities offered by the Web, then we see that the scope of the problem ranges across the full spectrum of our needs hierarchy. So, we would have to assess that if the migration of business models is a driving force for evolutionary change, then enhanced safety and security needs should be considered as well, while catering to the rights of privacy and freedom of speech. As we noted in our Prologue, one of our species’ most general admonitions of social interaction is “Don’t talk to strangers!” This rule is hard to apply when we invite strangers directly into our homes through our network connections.

Finally, a large variety of personal electronic devices are currently engaged in something of a maelstrom of market selection. Over the past few decades, a number of facilities have come into increasingly common use; facilities which speak to much of the range of the human needs hierarchy. As this collection of devices has engaged the market evaluation process, no specific combination of form and capabilities has yet resulted in a clear winner in the race for species supremacy. We can, however, observe many of the specific enhancements that offer the prospect of blending into a true mutational advance of the genre. The question then arises, “What provides the superior stimulus for mutational success?” We suggest that the answer lies with the replication of the social mechanisms that enable human-to-human interaction. Current network connectivity affords an artificial extension of the human sensori-motor experience, but only a partial extension. Central to the full enabling of social systems is the incorporation of mechanisms to facilitate the formation and functioning of groups that allow an equivalent evocation of trust to that found within direct, personal interactions. Based on this capability, an ontology of the relevant social order should allow a mutation-class device to more fully participate on behalf of the human bearer

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