ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors look at how the Internet relates to the Meganet currently and potentially. A rough model for an advanced Meganet exists: the internet, the freeform network of networks that links tens of millions of computer users around the world. As it expands, the internet provides us with early-warning signals of both the opportunities and the barriers that lay ahead in the building a worldwide information network. The Internet is sufficiently strong that it cannot be ignored as an early model for Meganet as a universal information network. It is instructive, therefore, to look at the Internet's current activities and to assess its future as the part of the larger Meganet. The majority of the internet users seek information and entertainment resources. Others wend their way through the Internet's electronic maze to make contact with like-minded human beings.
