Few will argue that the web works because of a stateless protocol, and a decentralized networks of servers that attempt to keep as close to a real time record as possible as to where any given address points to at any given time.


Wouldn't this alone be enough to formalize the statement that the web is in a constant state of motion?

If not, then from a pure, physical, non-virtual perspective, without motion how would one message hop from point a to point z, and every hop in between, if not by a pure, physical, and constant state of motion?


Even though we have a tendency to force the "Virtual" meme upon everything that we might do on the web as if, in fact, there is no actual physical nature to its existence, that doesn't mean that we have suddenly just defied all laws of physics by teleporting messages from one hop to the next, en route to their final destination based on the IP address received from a DNS server.  In fact, the DNS server in which we queried for the current address values of a particular URI can, quite obviously, at any moment be deemed incorrect, or undeliverable, suggesting that at that particular moment in time the information received from the DNS was, in fact, incorrect, and an action must be set into motion to determine what the problem might be.  


Of course regardless of the reason (e.g. The server just went down for a reboot, the network hardware that it is connected to has gone down, the correct IP address in which the requested content resides is not the same IP address the DNS server returned due to a zone file update that is still yet to propagate to the DNS server in which the request for the IP address was made, etc...) something physical has been placed into motion that can be traced back to the root cause of this current invalid state of the packets in which have now been placed into a temporary state of limbo while the system attempts to either fix the problem, or discover the root of the problem via the error code messages returned from the various queries made across this system.


Of course, these queries have taken place by setting a set of electrons into a fairly controlled, yet undeniable state of motion, which, in fact, is how ALL of this is taking place in the first place.

Seems pretty straight forward to me,  


The stateless web is in a constant state of motion.


On 4/6/06, Rick Marshall <
rjm@z...> wrote:i need to make some separate comments here.

1. the theories of larson were stated at about the time the first

practical demonstations of relativity were happening. until then (and
during the gestation period for his ideas) it was mostly speculation
(other ideas of einstein however were working our in practice). since

then relativity has become one of the cornerstones of physics and parts
of engineering and is probably the best confirmed scientific theory
ever. larsons ideas have languished largely because they have neither
added anything to the debate or provided demonstrable results ( debate

!= results).

2. now to stick my neck out - the web is a large scale interacting
system and should be seen that way. there is an equivalent cosmological
view.

3. newtonian physics requires motion be the result of interaction (force

being the agent of ineraction) but in a virtual world the laws of
physics may not apply. therefore the laws of the web may indeed
represent an alternative uinverse.

rick

Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:


>In the great REST vs Services debates, it would
>be interesting to see if there is a description
>of the web architecture that doesn't include implicit
>or explicit concepts of motion.
>

>Is it the case that URIs don't identify locations,
>or names, that identity is only a relationship
>and that we can't describe what we are doing
>with the web without using concepts of motion?

>
>Have fun at Extreme this year.
>
>len
>
>See the Reciprocal Theories of Dewey Larson.
>Start here
>
>http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?t=30373

>
>It's easier.
>
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