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In their book The Spy in the Coffee Machine, Nigel Shadbolt and Kieron O’Hara address the issue of our increasing loss of control over our private information on the Web. Can we really protect our privacy, or is the Web inherently in opposition to that ideal?

There are several AI experts on the panel. When most Americans think of Artificial Intelligence, they think of lifelike robots and talking computers al a the Jetsons or Hal. But Novak Spivack once said, "By 2050 no synthetic computer nor machine intelligence will have become truly self-aware.” Does the rest of the panelists agree? And if we don’t have our own C-3PO, what will the “robots” of the future actually do? How does AI fit into the future of the World Wide Web?

Tim Berners Lee once said that although he designed the Web, its full development “was the result of thousands of individuals playing a small part.” He has continued to advocate for a truly open Web, saying the Web “must be able to represent any thought, any datum, any idea that one might have.” But in an age of child pornography, terrorism, and even human trafficking, not to mention identity theft, should all individuals be able to use the Web in any way that they please? What controls, if any, should be in place?

In 2001, Tim Berners Lee, Ora Lassila, and James Hendler unveiled their vision of the Semantic Web in an article in Scientific American, writing, “ The Semantic Web will bring structure to the meaningful content of Web pages, creating an environment where software agents roaming from page to page can readily carry out sophisticated tasks for users.” Six years later, we have several languages to implement the Semantic Web, Semantic site likes Twine, and Semantic technology is being embraced by some of the largest corporate players in the field. But there is still a long road to travel.

Senior vice president of Intel, Patrick Gelsinger, has been quoted as saying that the Internet is “running up on some architectural limitations" and will begin to collapse as millions of new computer users from developing nations begin to sign on. Do any of the panelists believe that we can essentially destroy the World Wide Web? What about the ways that we currently use the Web could be harmful to its long-term sustainability?