The Internet is a Nervous System

The modern internet relies on cloud-architecture to function, but that has also increased its centralization. What if there was another way?

The nervous system allows our body to regulate our thoughts, actions and basic functionalities through a complex web of cells called neurons. Areas in the body like the spinal cord, brain and peripheral nerves are in immediate contact with those neurons, which communicate through synapses with electrical and chemical signals. Beyond these core functions, the nervous system manages all that is felt, sensed and perceived in the body.

Now, then: imagine for a moment that you, and all of the people around you, are neurons. Throughout most of human history, we could only talk to other neurons close to us via the synapses of a spoken language.

With the invention of writing, we discovered the possibility to connect all of these neurons. Our speed of communication was slow and the messages we transmitted were few. Though it took centuries for some transformative ideas like Arabic numerals or heliocentrism to travel across the globe, we became globally connected for the first time.

With the invention of the telegraph, telephone, radio and television, the quality of our connections improved vastly. Our shared network became faster, stronger, more global and more diverse in its messages. Each of these mediums have had different effects on those messages.

The Internet as a digital nervous system

Then came the internet – the quintessence of interconnectedness. More than any other time in human history, most of us are connected to the nervous system of humanity. As of late 2024, more than 5.5 billion people have access to the internet.

Many of us spend most of our waking hours on the internet. We can broadcast what we think and feel, communicate with other people as neurons do and co-create intricate webs of cooperation. This digital nervous system is decentralized by design – no single actor controls it.

The cloud and its limitations

The problem is that the modern internet relies strongly on cloud technologies, where client applications communicate with each other only via servers. It is akin to having a server between any two neurons in the nervous system, or each neuron being inside a box that decides if the signal from this neuron can go through.

In cloud architecture, application developers store keys of the accounts of users on their behalf, so they are the keepers of keys. It means that these applications now hold the power to quieten some and promote others, to block or recommend, to decide which information is shared and distributed on the internet and which isn’t. Software companies can block people based on their geographic location, based on random algorithms, personal beliefs of their founders or shareholders and the political agenda of powerful groups they are close to.

In some sense, we now have even different parts of these nervous systems loosely connected by their socio-geographic context. They look different, but underneath there is the same structure of power – specific groups with different agendas control how neurons talk, what information they see and if they can communicate at all.

This separateness is not the biggest problem; what is more dangerous is that in each of these versions of the internet, the neurons can’t talk and express themselves directly to each other. Servers manage our communication with those closest to us: family members, neighbors and local communities.

The problems with cloud-based architecture don't stop there. Not only do central servers control who can do what, but their influence is ubiquitous. Even when texting your family member on the couch next to you, the signal from your device to theirs needs to go to the application server first, and only after that, return to your own living room.

If that center fails or does not respond, it means that even if we are standing next to each other, we cannot communicate digitally. For a biological organism, an unresponsive nervous system would mean an instant death. The nervous system of humanity needs an upgrade.

A local first nervous system

There are parts of the internet where server-first architecture is more efficient, such as massive online games or uber-like networks. For the role the communication layer plays, we can use a better approach than the cloud.

If we are to design a nervous system that's resilient and agile, it needs a different wiring – when neurons connect to each other directly. For this we need to give the keys to neurons and wire them differently – on local first principles. This wiring is communication system with no one in between. It’s a better foundation for families, friends, communities and associations of creators.

The technological foundation of local first software

Two pieces of technology look striking, especially if we imagine their combined power: public key cryptography and conflict-free replicated data types (CRDTs).

Public key cryptography

Public key cryptography can protect digital data in a way that is not possible in the physical world. It essentially means each of us could have a vault that no one in the whole world can break into. Not a malicious hacker, not a powerful state, not even if they combined forces. This is not possible in the physical world.

By using public key cryptography, you can generate your very own vault where your data and messages live. This vault has two keys: private and public. Knowing your public key, anyone can send encrypted messages. Only you, the holder of the private key, can open the vault and see what's inside. All of the computational resources on Earth are not enough to decrypt a single message. Generating such keys does not cost any money and can be done on any computer, without the need to connect to the internet. Vault creation and authorization can be fully independent from anyone. It means each neuron can be digitally independent.

Once we have our independent vaults from which we control the keys, we can also enable vaults to talk to each other on local first principles. This is where CRDTs come in.

Conflict-free replicated data types

In traditional cloud architecture (also known as client-server), all clients need to connect to a server where the master record is kept. This server resolves potential conflicts when clients are working on the same information, especially in real time.

If we want to change the wiring to local first, we need a way to resolve conflicts independently by all clients, so that the client is not dependent on a server for this. Because we cannot control which devices are online or offline, this is not easy.

Fortunately, CRDTs that allow reaching the same state irrespective of the order in which changes are received, so each device can resolve conflicts independently without relying on a single master copy.

The future

Public key cryptography has been implemented widely. So far mostly in crypto wallets. CRDTs on the other hand is a fresh approach that emerged in computer science in 2011 and has mostly been implemented in experiments and research.

Applying it to the design of the web we aim to create a system where we can do everything offline and in local networks and the connection to the internet is optional. This will help the neuronal groups be more resilient and fast. We invite others to join as co-creators to build a local first version of the internet together.

The future will be the one we build.

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Originally published on Anytype - the everything app for those who celebrate trust & autonomy.