Original Post
Distributed vs Concentrated computing
The internet is in essence a distributed computing network, we have billions of computers processing information individually, then transferring information as required to other computers.
This model works... well i guess. But i would say that it is not the optimum setup.
Imagine a setup more like cable tv; you own already a monitor, then you say 'lets get some internet up in her', so you call up an internet service provider, and they run the cable to your house, and deliver to you a black box. You plug the black box into your monitor, into the power, and connect whatever USB devices you need, the installer guy gives you a wave, and away he goes.
The black box he plugged in for you is a computer, but not exactly the way we know it. It has a a semi-powerful graphics card, but not insane, it has not a lot of processing power, maybe as low as single core 2Ghz, it has maybe a gig of ram, and a small 10 Gb solid state hard drive (unacessable by user, for drivers, os, etc), it has a sound card (doesnt really matter), it also has a network card that is pretty good. This would cost next to nothing if it were in mass production. The interesting part is that the line your ISP provided you with is a gigabit fiber optics line.
That line is connected to your ISP's servers, which are immensely powerful beasts, many many clusters of many cored beasts, billions of Tb of storage, and insane amounts of ram and GPU capacity. When you purchased an internet connection, you don't do it for the black box, you do it for the use of their servers. When you boot up your box it creates a virtual machine on the server, which has access to near limitless resources.
At first you may think 'but moving the mouse even will lag!'. But no, if you remember, your pc does have some power, and so it will render the mouse correctly, so no worries there. 'and what about gaming? it will lag so bad' not really, gigabit lines are powerful, and can easily handle simple input, and pass you back a rendered frame before you even think about it. To practically very user, they will notice no difference, except that the little black box seems immensely powerful.
Now, imagine that everyone in the world is connection to one super server (exaggeration, probably 1 in every major city is more likely, or even less, but not 1). The time it takes to send a file to another user is now instant. The file is already on the server, it just has to give that user access. No files leave the server, except the rendered and compressed frames for each users screen. How about if you want to purchase a movie online, or a game? well, the game or movie is already on the server, so once again, instant purchase.
How about how long it takes to install a game? it doesn't take any time, installers would no longer exist because there would be no reason for it. A virtual copy of a game is made for you to use instantly, and as soon as you click purchase you can be playing. This also makes games near-inhackable (good luck hacking something that you donut know where it is and have no access to), and instantly patchable (the developer makes a copy of the game, makes any updates, then changes the pointer to the game to the patched copy. It also makes rollbacks instant, if necessary). Websites and you tube loading slowly? well with this system it will be instant, seeing as the server handles everything.
So, in this new system how will they charge us? Obviously if i am using the server for super high quality particle collision simulation, and you are using it for browsing webpages, it doesn't seem fair for us to be charged the same amount. Well, they would probably charge us by CPU time required, so web browsing may only cost you a few dollars a month, but scientific institutes may pay hundreds or thousands.
If you want to upgrade your plan, it would be quick and simple. For example; setup fee may be $100 for line and box, then $1 per hour of CPU time (dont worry, even now my CPU is running at less than 1%, meaning i would be charged $1 for 100 hours if i kept using it just for browsing, so its really not a lot of money). This would come with maybe 20Gb of serverside storage. Storage may be purchase able for $1 per gig, or something.
No more messing around with routers, port forwarding, upgrading your pc, external hard drives, etc.
So what do you think, better model, or worse?
This model works... well i guess. But i would say that it is not the optimum setup.
Imagine a setup more like cable tv; you own already a monitor, then you say 'lets get some internet up in her', so you call up an internet service provider, and they run the cable to your house, and deliver to you a black box. You plug the black box into your monitor, into the power, and connect whatever USB devices you need, the installer guy gives you a wave, and away he goes.
The black box he plugged in for you is a computer, but not exactly the way we know it. It has a a semi-powerful graphics card, but not insane, it has not a lot of processing power, maybe as low as single core 2Ghz, it has maybe a gig of ram, and a small 10 Gb solid state hard drive (unacessable by user, for drivers, os, etc), it has a sound card (doesnt really matter), it also has a network card that is pretty good. This would cost next to nothing if it were in mass production. The interesting part is that the line your ISP provided you with is a gigabit fiber optics line.
That line is connected to your ISP's servers, which are immensely powerful beasts, many many clusters of many cored beasts, billions of Tb of storage, and insane amounts of ram and GPU capacity. When you purchased an internet connection, you don't do it for the black box, you do it for the use of their servers. When you boot up your box it creates a virtual machine on the server, which has access to near limitless resources.
At first you may think 'but moving the mouse even will lag!'. But no, if you remember, your pc does have some power, and so it will render the mouse correctly, so no worries there. 'and what about gaming? it will lag so bad' not really, gigabit lines are powerful, and can easily handle simple input, and pass you back a rendered frame before you even think about it. To practically very user, they will notice no difference, except that the little black box seems immensely powerful.
Now, imagine that everyone in the world is connection to one super server (exaggeration, probably 1 in every major city is more likely, or even less, but not 1). The time it takes to send a file to another user is now instant. The file is already on the server, it just has to give that user access. No files leave the server, except the rendered and compressed frames for each users screen. How about if you want to purchase a movie online, or a game? well, the game or movie is already on the server, so once again, instant purchase.
How about how long it takes to install a game? it doesn't take any time, installers would no longer exist because there would be no reason for it. A virtual copy of a game is made for you to use instantly, and as soon as you click purchase you can be playing. This also makes games near-inhackable (good luck hacking something that you donut know where it is and have no access to), and instantly patchable (the developer makes a copy of the game, makes any updates, then changes the pointer to the game to the patched copy. It also makes rollbacks instant, if necessary). Websites and you tube loading slowly? well with this system it will be instant, seeing as the server handles everything.
So, in this new system how will they charge us? Obviously if i am using the server for super high quality particle collision simulation, and you are using it for browsing webpages, it doesn't seem fair for us to be charged the same amount. Well, they would probably charge us by CPU time required, so web browsing may only cost you a few dollars a month, but scientific institutes may pay hundreds or thousands.
If you want to upgrade your plan, it would be quick and simple. For example; setup fee may be $100 for line and box, then $1 per hour of CPU time (dont worry, even now my CPU is running at less than 1%, meaning i would be charged $1 for 100 hours if i kept using it just for browsing, so its really not a lot of money). This would come with maybe 20Gb of serverside storage. Storage may be purchase able for $1 per gig, or something.
No more messing around with routers, port forwarding, upgrading your pc, external hard drives, etc.
So what do you think, better model, or worse?
When I see you, my heart goes DOKI⑨DOKI
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