So, I'm fairly good with technology. I can set up systems to do just about anything. That's my job and my hobby.
I've setup virtualized pfSense routers, VOIP systems, DNS servers, DHCP servers, Active Directory servers, Email servers, web servers, I2P nodes, gaming servers, and Hyper-V servers.
I've 100%ed most of the Zelda games, Portal and Destiny as well as many others.
I've hosted LAN parties, with some of the best games I've ever seen like Goldeneye: Source, Empryion: Galactic Survival (Still Alpha), Age of Mythology, Age of Empires, Warcraft III, Unreal Tournament, Halo (1-3), Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and countless emulated games.
I've modded and mapped for games like Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
But what do I do with all that?
I mean at the end of the day, every game wanes into the sunset.
My virtualization knowledge gives me my job, and therefore money, but I'll leave behind no legacy. Nobody cares about a server you made after 10 years has passed. Everything becomes obsolete.
The Internet, despite what people say, isn't forever. Things fade, some things may persist, but we hold on to this Wild West view of the Internet. We think that we are free here, and maybe to some extent we are for now. But every year, restrictions get a little tighter. The Internet gets a little less free. A few things you've never heard of disappear from the Internet forever. A big company forces a small company out of the market. The governments of the world make our lives a little worse.
What do we do? In some ways, the very idea of cryptocurrency undermines every government in the world. How can they tax what they can't prove you have? But this depends on us considering our computers "secure" and based on everything I've seen... security is a myth. For fun, I'll link in xkcd's example on that: https://xkcd.com/792/
Some of my friends and family think I'm a pessimist, but right now, I think we're living in a golden age, and I don't think we have much longer left before our utopia turns dystopian. As more and more of our privacy is given away, and more and more of our trust is placed in the hands of fewer and fewer people, I think we'll soon discover just how fragile our Wild West really is.
And honestly? I don't know what we can realistically do to stop it.