The Internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.

At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.

The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies could “revolutionise” society. “With this kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine,” he said.

The power of the grid will become apparent this summer after what scientists at Cern have termed their “red button” day - the switching-on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the new particle accelerator built to probe the origin of the universe. The grid will be activated at the same time to capture the data it generates.

That article is from April 2008 and my ISP still isn't offering holographic video calls.

PopeLeo said:

That article is from April 2008 and my ISP still isn't offering holographic video calls.

Scheduled to go live in 2012.

Wouldn't by any chance going live in time to assist the alien takeover of Earth on 12/21/12 would it?

PurpleJedi said:

Wouldn't by any chance going live in time to assist the alien takeover of Earth on 12/21/12 would it?

Might be a "portal" for all we know.

Now that I think about it.............it may be a part of Project Bluebeam.

[Edited 12/2/11 10:50am]

Graycap23 said:

PurpleJedi said:

Wouldn't by any chance going live in time to assist the alien takeover of Earth on 12/21/12 would it?

Might be a "portal" for all we know.

Now that I think about it.............it may be a part of Project Bluebeam.

[Edited 12/2/11 10:50am]

OK, you forced me to google that.

Interesting STUFF I suppose.

PurpleJedi said:

Graycap23 said:

Might be a "portal" for all we know.

Now that I think about it.............it may be a part of Project Bluebeam.

[Edited 12/2/11 10:50am]

OK, you forced me to google that.

Interesting STUFF I suppose.

Seriously................I'm beginning 2 think there is more 2 this than "faster" internet speed.