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I wrote a History final this evening, in spite of the soft breeze and the unseasonal sound of crickets throbbing in the bushes outside my classroom. I entered the fluorescent lights, and I wrote the final.

Raise your hand if you have academic integrity. Raise your hand if you appreciate any part of the work your professors pour into your life. Raise your hand if you care...

I wrote for almost two hours tracing the level of freedom in the development of network technology.

My thesis: Though it would appear that with the development of network technology has come a steadily increasing level of freedom, I believe that in fact the contemporary Internet is less free than its early ancestors such as SAGE and ARPANET. However, the liberality of the technology itself does not necessarily coincide with the freedom of the user.

The Internet began as an entirely open technology. But somewhere along the way it became closed.

So there are the Open Source Movement dudes who bemoan this diminution of liberality. And there are the corporates who still claim that the technology is essentially "free."

But my architecture friend Ryan recently told me a maxim that has not left my mind: "Design comes from Constraint".

When an architect is asked to build a museum, he is essentially paralyzed unless some constraints are placed upon him. These include: climate, geography, population, historical setting, urbanity, etc. When once she determines these constraints, she can then design. Design comes from constraint.

The Law is Freedom?

Gravity literally makes the world go 'round, I think.

So in my Final I argue that though the technology itself is less free today than it was in its early stages, this diminution of liberality has actually benefited the average user. Network Technology cannot have its anarchistic cake and eat it too. If the universality of the Internet depends on the steepness of its learning curve, which itself depends on its illiberality, then the network architects must choose between these two ideals, or at least strike a balance.

As for me:

"For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again." 2 Corinthians 5:14