“The internet could soon be made obsolete.”

That is the bold first statement in a recent article published in the UK’s Times Online. Everyone has a vauge sense of the Law of Accelerating Returns as it applies to technological advancement. We’ve gained more technological prowess as a species in the past 100 years than the prior million. We stand to gain another 20,000 years worth of advancement in the 21st, only at the 20th century rate. Ridiculous.

With the now widespread adoption of Web 2.0 and rampant speculation on what will comprise Web 3.0 technologies, it seems that we were just figuring out how to make the most of the current internet as a ubiquitous, easily-accessed medium for the entire planet.

Looks like all of that is about to get blown-up by the same Swiss-based CERN particle physics laboratory (Wiki here) that helped spawn the original net:

The scientists who pioneered [the Internet] have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.

At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.

The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

Like the internet before it, “the grid” will initially be used as a tool to capture and transmit vast amounts of academic data. The switch will be flipped on “the grid” the same day as a new particle accelerator is turned on - so that data on the origins of the universe can be collected from collisions.

The possibilities- especially where personal communication and commerce are concerned- are obviously endless. One doesn’t need to think too hard about how Hollywood would capitalize on the ability to transmit entire feature films in seconds.

The real gain would be realized in cloud computing though. Hard-drives would essentially be outdated as transfer speeds on “the grid” would exceed write-times to the local hard-drive sitting in your computer right now. All of your information, files, data, pictures, music, etc. can all be kept on a server somewhere, to be accessed however and wherever you see fit.

Also like the internet before it, though, a whole host of new security and privacy concerns arise with a brand new network suddenly containing a vast amounts of sensitive, personal information that was previously stored locally, somewhat safe from the prying hands of hackers. Suppose we’ll cross that bridge when we get there?

At least all those in my generation- the first true internet generation- will not have to wait for the next big thing until we are too old to understand it. Sweet.

So how does it kick the old internet’s ass? In a nutshell:

…the internet has evolved by linking together a hotchpotch of cables and routing equipment, much of which was originally designed for telephone calls and therefore lacks the capacity for high-speed data transmission.

By contrast, the grid has been built with dedicated fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated components to slow the deluge of data. The 55,000 servers already installed are expected to rise to 200,000 within the next two years.

It’s right around the corner. Whether or not today’s machines- or those of five years from now- can even handle the transfer rates and computational speeds necessary to take advantage of “the grid” remains to be seen, but if the good old Law of Accelerating Returns holds true, who knows what the hell the sixth generation iPhone will be able to do.

Stay tuned.