DARPA Is Creating a New Internet, Based Around Search

The current Internet sees only 4 percent of the real Internet. The new Internet will see the other 96 percent.

What you see when you do a basic Web search is only the tip of the iceberg. Most of the information is buried in the "Deep Web." NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Internet you currently know only sees about 4 percent of the actual Internet. The next Internet, being built by the Pentagon’s research and development branch, aims to see the same 4 percent—as well as the other 96 percent.

The program is called Memex, and is being designed with new search functions that could change how we use the Internet. Memex is being developed by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) with the help of 18 partners, including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“This is going to have a huge impact,” said Chris Mattmann, the principle investigator for NASA’s side of Memex.

Memex looks to do with raw data what social media did to online chatrooms. It connects everything, shows its relations, and makes it easier for users to find the piece they’re looking for.

DARPA’s key interest in Memex, at least initially, is to help map the Darknet—the Internet beneath the Internet that exists on peer-to-peer networks. They want to use Memex to help stop online human trafficking.

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