Elements December 12, 2013 The Mission to Decentralize the Internet By Joshua Kopstein YOU HAVE HIT THE WALL. You have read your last complimentary article. Subscribe Now - Just $1 a week. LEARN MORE Link your subscription Link your subscription Have a login? Sign In Already have a login? Sign In In the nineteen-seventies, the Internet was a small, decentralized collective of computers. The personal-computer revolution that followed built upon that foundation, stoking optimism encapsulated by John Perry Barlow’s 1996 manifesto “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.” Barlow described a chaotic digital utopia, where “netizens” self-govern and the institutions of old hold no sway. “On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone,” he writes. “You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.” You've read your last complimentary article this month. To read the full article, SUBSCRIBE NOWIf you're already a subscriber please sign in or link your subscription. Joshua Kopstein Bio All work & You Might Like
