The end of the internet is nigh!

Can it be true?

The problem is that the world is running out of internet addresses according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). More than 85% of the available addresses have already been allocated and the OECD predicts we will have run out completely by early 2011. These aren’t the normal web addresses you type into your browser’s window, and which were recently freed up by Icann (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the body responsible for allocating domain names, to allow thousands of new internet domains ending in, for instance, .london or .xxx.

Imagine that. Mankind has invented something else that is temporary, finite, and has fatal errors. I think that most of us, including myself, never really thought about the limits of the internet, but here we have a newstory telling us that just like we need to cut back on oil consumption, we need to cut back on our internet.

It's another glaring example of how mankind is not God. We can't wear that mantle & our efforts to do so lead us to certain demise. In fact, it seems that the more we try to control (or manipulate) our world, the more our finite-ness surfaces.

But honestly can we do without the internet? I appreciate the musings of the article's author - Mark Harris: "Maybe at a philosophical level it’ll be a good thing if the internet packs up. We will all be able to shut down our computers and forget the 24/7 economy. I read recently that Stone Age man, with all his hunting and gathering and other chores, still worked only 22 hours a week."

Go to: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article4271879.ece

for the complete story.