You can't solve problems by breaking the net

The Internet is the nervous system of the 21st century. Everything we do today involves the Internet and everything we do tomorrow will require it. As a result, every problem we experience will have some intersection with the Internet, and will invite the same solution we’ve gotten in the fights over obscenity and copyright infringement: can’t you just break the Internet a little, so that it fixes my problem? In every case, the cure is worse than the disease, and the bad news is, this is only getting worse. What do we tell the government and the general population when they ask us to solve their (real) problems with our network configuration? As stewards of the Internet, and as citizens of the world, we must demand real solutions, not the security syllogism that goes, "Something must be done! I have done something. Therefore, something has been done."