There are over 5 billion Google searches every single day. Thousands of tweets are posted every second, and billions of hours of videos are watched on YouTube and Facebook each day.
If you controlled the internet, maybe you’d make everybody watch WHAT IF all the time and become a billionaire. Muahahaha!
But before devising this diabolical plan, how would you even manage to control such a powerful tool?
Well, there actually is a way to control parts of the internet, sort of. Spread across the world, 14 people hold special physical keys that help protect the internet’s Domain Name System. This is what allows us to type in google.com instead of remembering a complicated series of numbers, like an IP address.
The reason these people are spread out around the world is that if someone managed to get hold of all 14 keys, they could theoretically gain enormous influence over this system. So, what would happen if you were given the keys to the internet?
Well, it’s safe to say you’d feel like a digital god. People use the internet for practically everything nowadays. They communicate with friends, do their jobs, watch TV, shop, and much more. With the ability to influence how the internet works, you could have serious control over people’s daily lives.
Maybe you’d use these new powers for evil and shut down an entire eCommerce company by blocking its IP address. Or maybe you’d make everyone watch your favorite WHAT IF video from that week. I like that idea.
No matter what you did, there’s a good chance you’d become incredibly wealthy. The biggest websites in the world would be desperate to stay on your good side. This could mean enormous amounts of money, expensive gifts, and perhaps even some special favors.
Not only that, but you could choose what kind of information you wanted to spread. If you supported a particular politician, you could help their advertisements reach millions of people. Or you could go one step further and make sure everyone saw a video or tweet you created. Let’s just hope it wasn’t about flat Earth propaganda.
Despite all this power, you’d still have some serious downsides to deal with. Sure, we have an entire committee and multiple safeguards to prevent any individual from gaining complete control over the internet. But would one person even be able to handle that kind of responsibility?
With the power to influence the internet, you’d become one of the most powerful people in the world. That sounds nice, but it would also put a massive target on your back. People might try to kidnap you because of your fortune and influence, or even harm you because of how you were using your control.
So, if you really wanted to control the internet, you’d probably have to live in a secret bunker, surrounded by high level security. You could never appear in public and would always have to remain in hiding. Despite having so much power, controlling the internet probably wouldn’t be as much fun as it sounds.
And besides, what if the internet suddenly went down? Your power would become completely useless.
Well, we’ll leave that story for another WHAT IF.
