> The idea of the Internet breaking down, due to an overload of messages, was
> brought up here. I began wondering: if the amount of information the
> Internet can handle at any given time is limited, then won't the price of
> sending a given amount of information through the Internet go up to match the
> demand for the limited resources?
This would happen if there was a functional pricing system of net
services, but as far as I know most networks use flat fees for a certain
bandwidth (that may or may not be used). And most networks have rather
fixed rates for the users.
I think the net could get clogged up here and there due to overloads
(especially if something got a lot of people online at the same time;
compare to telephone netwroks), but that would just lead to massive packet
losses and "trashing", which seems self limiting. A more interesting
danger is net-generated avalanches, such as the famous router breakdown in
the 80's.
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Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
nv91-asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~nv91-asa/main.html
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