Tobriand
Well-Known Member
Ok, P2P might be a delicate subject. Its more often than not used for warez. Its also used for perfectly legit things. However, from the hypothetical point of view of someone who uses it for the former, I think I've come up with an answer.
It would require everyone on the network to have a LOT of storage. Into the TB range, I think, if it ever caught on. But it would preserve all receivers' safety, no matter what they were getting.
Basically, imagine a program that acts like bittorrent - but rather than being a network for a set of specified files that you know about, its blind. Its also malleable. By which I mean that any person using the same network can dump a file into the directory they're receiving to and that file will be send randomly to others. But they won't be able to tell what file it is until they have the entire thing - despite being able to send what they've got of it.
The result, essentially, is you create a perpetually changing cache of files that no-one's got a clue what are and that everyone will eventually end up with. Hence the need for a *huuuuge* ammount of storage.
This is, of course, impossible with current storage - let alone bandwidth (given that a network could contain anything whatsoever, can you imagine how long it'd take to download one thing you wanted) let alone the fact that it would have to be (I think) impossible to stop a file sending if it were in the directory - so if you got something you didn't want on your hdd and deleted it, you could very easily end up getting it again sometime (but if you didn't then lots of other people will eventually get it and you'll have a greater chance of getting it again - big dillemma).
There's a lot of problems with it. But I think it would probably be safe. It would also be extremely useful, from a more legal pov, for exchanging schoolwork and such - a class could easily just add their essay to the directory when they'd written it having set up a file with their teacher, who could then connect in and get the lot - though for that purpose *not* knowing what file you're getting beforehand would not, I think, be useful. For that specific example, though, this would probably be pretty effective to use even today, since you know only small files will be on the network.
Anyone got any other ideas for hypothetical networks that might or might not work that they've come up with, out of interest? The whole thing is an interesting issue, not least because there is a question as to whether it even *should* be solved. Thoughts?
Mods: I'm fairly sure this isn't going against any regulations, but if I'm touching on the edge here, by all means kill the thread - I've no wish to raise any hackles, just get some opinions on an interesting topic and idea.
It would require everyone on the network to have a LOT of storage. Into the TB range, I think, if it ever caught on. But it would preserve all receivers' safety, no matter what they were getting.
Basically, imagine a program that acts like bittorrent - but rather than being a network for a set of specified files that you know about, its blind. Its also malleable. By which I mean that any person using the same network can dump a file into the directory they're receiving to and that file will be send randomly to others. But they won't be able to tell what file it is until they have the entire thing - despite being able to send what they've got of it.
The result, essentially, is you create a perpetually changing cache of files that no-one's got a clue what are and that everyone will eventually end up with. Hence the need for a *huuuuge* ammount of storage.
This is, of course, impossible with current storage - let alone bandwidth (given that a network could contain anything whatsoever, can you imagine how long it'd take to download one thing you wanted) let alone the fact that it would have to be (I think) impossible to stop a file sending if it were in the directory - so if you got something you didn't want on your hdd and deleted it, you could very easily end up getting it again sometime (but if you didn't then lots of other people will eventually get it and you'll have a greater chance of getting it again - big dillemma).
There's a lot of problems with it. But I think it would probably be safe. It would also be extremely useful, from a more legal pov, for exchanging schoolwork and such - a class could easily just add their essay to the directory when they'd written it having set up a file with their teacher, who could then connect in and get the lot - though for that purpose *not* knowing what file you're getting beforehand would not, I think, be useful. For that specific example, though, this would probably be pretty effective to use even today, since you know only small files will be on the network.
Anyone got any other ideas for hypothetical networks that might or might not work that they've come up with, out of interest? The whole thing is an interesting issue, not least because there is a question as to whether it even *should* be solved. Thoughts?
Mods: I'm fairly sure this isn't going against any regulations, but if I'm touching on the edge here, by all means kill the thread - I've no wish to raise any hackles, just get some opinions on an interesting topic and idea.
