The Deep Web

 

 

"I am sorry Mr. Gore - you had NOTHING to do with the internet!"

The world wide web. The internet as most people call it. It continues to grow like a weed. Thousands of new web sites are added every week. The ones which have been around for awhile are getting faster, better and smarter. And yet, the internet holds a secret - what we see, what most of us are able to retrieve, is only a small fraction of what resides there. The majority of the information exists in what is now referred to as the invisible or Deep Web.

Even though the internet has been around for a few decades, I am still in awe of it. It really is science looking more like science fiction. Our kids today should be an order of magnitude smarter than their parents, just from having so much information available to them at the touch of their fingertips. For example, even though the number is impossible to nail down with precision, it is now estimated there are over one billion web sites available to us on the internet. If history is any guide, that number could double that by the end of 2015.

That being said, the amount of information available to us, albeit huge, is small compared to the total amount which resides in the web. The Deep Web on the other hand, is gargantuan. It is as large as it is mysterious. Special software is needed to take your there. Google will not. According to Time Magazine, some government officials now believe the deep web has become an “electronic haven for thieves, child pornographers, human traffickers, forgers, assassins and peddlers of state secrets and loose nukes.” The irony is the Deep Web was set up by our government to store huge data bases - never to be used for nefarious purposes.

I started thinking about the Deep Web as I watched Season 2 of House of Cards. I had not heard the term for years and like most of us, have no need for it. However, it fascinates me. The internet which is available to us, has more than enough information to satisfy even the most curious mind. However, the Deep Web is there. It is like our subconscious which dwells right beside our consciousness. Like anything else which has been invented, it can be used for the good or the not so good.

The size of the Deep Web is also open for debate. Some estimate it is 500 times the size of the searchable web. When you think that Google itself covers over 8 billion pages of information, one can only guess the total size of the Deep Web. So as we walk further down the path of speed (Petabytes) and storage (Exabyte), one can only image where all this information can or should be stored. As we have seen from the latest "spook" building built right outside Salt Lake City, vast amounts of information can be stored and retrieved by NSA in a heartbeat.

So where are we headed with this? Some think we are on the verge of a brand new world, filled with superior knowledge for all. Others see a more dystopian future, filled with data being used as a weapon to conquer or control. A few even see a Skynet scenario coming to fruition. Similar to splitting the atom, let us hope we can use this tool as a gift to mankind, and not something that could eventually enslave or destroy us.