The Conceptual Access-Network Thesis: Theorizing the Success of New Internet-Based Products, Services, & Technologies

The Conceptual Access-Network Thesis proposed suggests that the development or success of any new internet-based product, service, or technology will ultimately be contingent upon how well it satisfies the criterion of providing access to or creating a network of potential users, products, and services. The significance of this thesis is that, as a criterion, the principle not only explicates how internet technology evolves but can explain what underlies a range of technologies beyond that of the internet, which include chemical forms such as Insulin and highways that are based on the tenets of access or networks despite the inevitable change over time that technologies will experience. While discussing the role of change as both process and product we consider how the future of internet-based technologies will ultimately result in a distortion of Dr. Stanley Milgram’s intimate stranger phenomenon that can be traced back to 1967 before the internet existed, which demonstrates the cyclical nature of the (r)evolution of technology: the future will consist of various manifestations, combinations, or permutations of previously discovered or established concepts. There has never existed an internet-based service, product or technology offered that failed to satisfy the access-network criterion since the inception of what became known as the internet. The implication of this article is that by providing context for understanding the current developmental stage of the internet-based products and technology we are now prepared to more accurately predict what will exist, the necessary ethical considerations, and how we may act to prevent any unwanted outcomes.

本文提出的**概念性接入网络论题（Conceptual Access-Network Thesis）**表明，任何新兴互联网产品、服务或技术的发展与成败，最终都取决于其能否满足一项核心标准：为潜在用户、产品与服务搭建网络，或是为其提供接入此类网络的渠道。
该论题的重要意义在于，这一标准不仅能够阐释互联网技术的演进逻辑，更可用于解释互联网之外诸多技术的底层运行规律——包括胰岛素（Insulin）这类化工制品，以及以接入或网络核心原则为依托的公路交通路网，尽管各类技术都会随时间经历不可避免的迭代变迁。
在探讨变革兼具过程与产物双重属性的同时，本文将分析互联网技术的未来将如何最终扭曲斯坦利·米尔格拉姆（Stanley Milgram）博士于1967年（互联网诞生前）提出的**亲密陌生人现象（intimate stranger phenomenon）**。这一案例也印证了技术（r）演进的循环本质：未来的技术形态，都将是既往已被发现或确立的概念的各类变体、组合或重排。
自如今所谓的互联网诞生以来，所有面世的互联网服务、产品与技术，均满足接入网络标准。
本文的核心启示在于，通过为理解当前互联网产品与技术的发展阶段提供语境支撑，我们得以更精准地预判未来的技术形态、必须考量的伦理问题，以及如何采取行动规避不良后果。