On July 20th of this year, something almost unbelievable happened. The richest man on Earth, Jeff Bezos, went to space and back on one of the first private commercial flights, along with an 18-year old Dutch student (Rincon, 2021). Ever since, I have asked myself the same question repeatedly: Is this really beneficial for all of us?

In the midst of the Cold War- September 12th, 1962 to be exact-, JFK gave a speech at the Rice University. In this speech, he spoke his famous words: “we choose to go to the moon”. Ever since, mankind has accomplished astonishing things. A total of twelve men have walked on the moon since (NASA, 2021).

Although of course interstellar features, what truly is incredible is the amount of public value that these space journeys have created. Ever since, mankind has sent satellites upwards that guide our communications systems, navigation, internet. We are now able to more accurately predict the weather, helping with damage prevention in storms (National Hurricane Center, 2021). NASA even claims that as of 2016, more than 2,000 spinoffs (NASA technology that has been incorporated in commercial products) have come to market in the markets of transportation, agriculture, computer technology and many more (NASA, 2021).

However, the entire landscape has shifted since then. The space race is no longer between the United States and the USSR, it is now between private organizations such as Virgin, SpaceX and Blue Origin. Sustainability has become a greater part of our daily lives, and these space journeys have shifted from research space exploration to commercial journeys.

One of the major pollutants on our planet is air travel. For one long flight- think Amsterdam to New York- a plane emits roughly one to three tons of carbon dioxide per passenger. To get to space, this increases one hundred times, to 80 to 100 tons of carbon dioxide. Furthermore, when carbon dioxide is injected that high in the atmosphere, it tends to stay there years longer (Gammon, 2021). Luckily for now, space flights comprise 0.1 percent of air travel, but that number will rise, if Bezos and Musk get their wish. The space tourism industry is expected to grow with 17.5 percent per year next decade according to Cision (2021).

Now my question to all of you. Do you think that the coming decades the space race will add value to our society in general, or do you think that it is a waste of money?

References:
Cision. (2021, 14 juli). Outlook on the Sub-Orbital Transportation and Space Tourism Global Market to 2031 – Featuring Blue Origin, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic Among Others. Https://Www.Prnewswire.Com/News-Releases/Outlook-on-the-Sub-Orbital-Transportation-and-Space-Tourism-Global-Market-to-2031—Featuring-Blue-Origin-Spacex-and-Virgin-Galactic-among-Others-301333701.Html. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/outlook-on-the-sub-orbital-transportation-and-space-tourism-global-market-to-2031—featuring-blue-origin-spacex-and-virgin-galactic-among-others-301333701.html
Gammon, K. (2021, 22 juli). How the billionaire space race could be one giant leap for pollution. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jul/19/billionaires-space-tourism-environment-emissions
Hiltzik, M. (2021, 11 juli). Space race for Bezos, Branson, Musk is a mere vanity project. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-07-06/jeff-bezos-richard-branson-elon-musk-space-race
Kennedy, J. F. (1962, 12 september). JFK RICE MOON SPEECH. https://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/ricetalk.htm. https://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/ricetalk.htm
Latest Satellite Imagery. (2021). https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/satellite.php. https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/satellite.php

Yesterday- like many of you- I was just about done with the DBA assignment. One of my group members was just about to hand it in, while I was quickly cooking some pasta. After a half an hour I noticed I hadn’t heard anything from him yet. I tried sending him a text through WhatsApp but it didn’t deliver. Upon reading the news I learned that Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram were all down.

Over the night I caught myself still trying to unconsciously open Whatsapp or Instagram, and suddenly it made me think: Are we putting too many eggs in one basket in terms of communication?

At the point of writing, Facebook has 2.9 billion users worldwide (Statista, 2021), Instagram has one billion (Statista, 2021) and Whatsapp has two billion users (Statista, 2021). In the Netherlands alone, Whatsapp has 12.4 million active users, Facebook has 10.4 million and instagram 5.9 million on a population of 18 million people (NOS, 2021).

At the same time, KPN- one of largest network providers in the Netherlands- saw an “abnormal rise” in network usage, at one point even having four times the amount of activity as normal (Boogert, 2021). Even Signal, one of Whatsapp toughest competitors, could not handle all the new user requests due to Whatsapp being down (Signal, 2021).

Yesterday, the problem appeared to be a problem in the internet infrastructure that is supposed to enable the communication between Facebook’s data-centers (Isaac & Frenkel, 2021). In 2019, when Facebook was down for an entire day, the problem was a change in server configuration (Isaac & Conger, 2019). In between these times, Facebook has been the focus of multiple DDoS-attacks that try to cripple the networks, as are many competitors.

Now I know what you might be thinking: Here is yet another crusader fighting against the monopoly that is Facebook, but you’re wrong. Facebook is cruising at these heights because we all like their service, whether in the forms of WhatsApp, Instagram or Facebook. It is simply a question of supply and demand: we like low-key informal contact with friends from the comfort of our own couch, and they provide that service better than their competitors.

I’m simply posing a question that only you have the answer to. Are you too dependent on one provider? Are you prepared for what to do when the next server goes down, possibly for a longer time? In my opinion, we create a lot more breathing room for ourselves when we diversify our way of communication. Software and data security is ever-growing and ever-growing more complex, to the point where we integrate it so much in our day-to-days -sometimes to the point where it becomes part of our muscle memory- that we have little fall-back for when something goes wrong.

Pasta turned out great by the way.

References:
Isaac, M., & Conger, K. (2019, 15 maart). Facebook’s Daylong Malfunction Is a Reminder of the Internet’s Fragility. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/technology/facebook-whatsapp-outage.html
Emerce. (2021, 5 oktober). WhatsApp kapot, Nederland massaal terug naar sms. https://www.emerce.nl/nieuws/whatsapp-kapot-nederland-massaal-terug-sms
Isaac, M., & Conger, K. (2019, 15 maart). Facebook’s Daylong Malfunction Is a Reminder of the Internet’s Fragility. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/technology/facebook-whatsapp-outage.html
Isaac, M., & Frenkel, S. (2021, 5 oktober). Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Were Down: Here’s What to Know. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/04/technology/facebook-down.html
NOS. (2021, 4 oktober). Wereldwijde storing WhatsApp, Facebook en Instagram, “het lijkt goed mis”. https://nos.nl/artikel/2400380-wereldwijde-storing-whatsapp-facebook-en-instagram-het-lijkt-goed-mis
Statista. (2021a, juli 7). WhatsApp – Statistics & Facts. https://www.statista.com/topics/2018/whatsapp/
Statista. (2021b, september 7). Instagram: distribution of global audiences 2021, by age group. https://www.statista.com/statistics/325587/instagram-global-age-group/
Statista. (2021c, september 10). Facebook: number of monthly active users worldwide 2008–2021. https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/