The Internet is coming soon to a space station near you.
With satellite Internet, the Web’s presence is already felt in space. But now the US military plans to test an internet router in space.
In Feng Shui we say that ‘everything is communicating with you all the time; make sure you like the communication.’
Now that will be even more true.
To send a message from one remote terminal to another via satellite today requires the first terminal to send the data to the satellite, from where it is bounced back to an earth station for routing. The earth station re-transmits it to the satellite on a different frequency, selected depending on its destination, and the satellite bounces it back to its destination. With the router in space, the satellite can pick the channel used to send the message to its destination. By eliminating the message’s round trip to the earth station, operators can increase satellite capacity and reduce transmission times between remote terminals by using fewer hops and fewer frequencies for each message.
In other words, stronger, better, faster.
Of course the military uses could be staggering, including easier surveillance and spying. The counterside is that Earth communications will be richer and quicker due to our space connection. In any event, the human footprint in space is growing steadily deeper. From an ecological perspective this could be troubling. We are broadcasting are noise deeper and deeper into everyone else’s space. And for the entrepreneur, it’s time to secure those new domains early-on. For the complementary and alternative medicine law enthusiast, think mars.camlawblog.com.
Then again, I’m not sure the Martians will want to have their frequencies jammed with gadzillions of Earthling twitters.
___________
Law Offices of Michael H. Cohen offers general corporate legal services, litigation consultation, and expertise in health law with a unique focus on alternative, complementary, and integrative medical therapies, representing medical doctors, allied health professionals and other clinicians, entrepreneurs, and institutions.
Michael H. Cohen is Principal in Law Offices of Michael H. Cohen and also President of the Institute for Integrative and Energy Medicine (also known as the Institute for Health, Ethics, Law, Policy & Society), a forum for exploration of legal, regulatory, ethical, and health policy issues involved in the judicious integration of complementary and alternative medical therapies (such as acupuncture and traditional oriental medicine, chiropractic, massage therapy, herbal medicine) and conventional clinical care. The most recent published book by Michael H. Cohen on health care law, regulation, ethics and policy pertaining to complementary, alternative and integrative medicine and related fields is Healing at the Borderland of Medicine and Religion, which follows Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Legal Boundaries and Regulatory Perspectives (1998), Beyond Complementary Medicine: Legal and Ethical Perspectives on Health Care and Human Evolution (2000), and Future Medicine: Ethical Dilemmas, Regulatory Challenges, and Therapeutic Pathways to Health Care and Healing in Human Transformation (2003).
Health care and corporate lawyer Michael H. Cohen is licensed has been admitted to the Bar of California, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington D.C., and to the Bar of England and Wales as a Solicitor (non-practicing).
___________