Abstract
Within the general framework of complexity (structural, dynamic and pragmatic), there is an analysis of the Internet – in the broad sense – as a complex system which is articulated in three main layers: (i) the technological infrastructure, (ii) the Web and (iii) cloud computing, along with the practical applications (apps) and the ‘mobile Internet’. The present status and possible future of each layer is analyzed from the perspective of complexity. Structural and dynamic forms of complexity are available in the three of them, whereas pragmatic complexity is more intense in the third layer. First, the layer of the Internet sensu stricto is studied. The main components that articulate this network, which is the technological support of the whole complex system, and the factors that influence its future, are considered. Afterwards, the Internet as a scale-free network and its possible future are addressed. Thereafter, the case of the Internet of the Things is seen in this context of complexity. Second, the layer of the Web is analyzed in three directions: (1) the future of the Web as a threefold undertaking (scientific side, technological facet and social dimension); (2) the future of the Web as an interaction of internal and external perspectives, which are increasingly intertwined in dynamic terms; and (3) three possible scenarios for the future of the Web (dystopian, open and in-between), based on the threefold undertaking pointed out previously. Third, the layer of cloud computing, practical applications (apps) and the ‘mobile Internet’ is studied in terms of complexity in the present status of the three of them and their possible future. Pragmatic complexity is increasingly present as the activity of each of the main expressions of this third layer of the network of networks becomes more and more particularized or singularized. A coda adds some philosophico-methodological reflections on the present of the Internet as a complex system and its near future.
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