????幾周前，有一個(gè)叫做FireChat的信息應(yīng)用發(fā)布了。第一眼看去，它好像和本來就已經(jīng)很擁擠的應(yīng)用市場(chǎng)上的其他同類應(yīng)用沒有什么區(qū)別，但實(shí)際上它是一款具有潛在顛覆性的應(yīng)用，說不定還是自1995年國際集線箱開始成形以來，對(duì)于互聯(lián)網(wǎng)來說最重要的一件大事。

????（可能這時(shí)你會(huì)問：“等一下……你說什么？為什么？”）

????FireChat使用了一個(gè)iOS 7尚未充分開發(fā)的功能——“多點(diǎn)連線框架”。這個(gè)功能聽起來很新潮又很復(fù)雜，其實(shí)它只是意味著一臺(tái)蘋果設(shè)備（iPhone、iPad甚至是iPod touch）無需使用互聯(lián)網(wǎng)就可以與另一臺(tái)蘋果設(shè)備互聯(lián)。這句話的后半部分是最重要的地方，值得再強(qiáng)調(diào)一遍：這臺(tái)設(shè)備不需要傳統(tǒng)的網(wǎng)絡(luò)連接——無論是3G還是無線網(wǎng)，它可以和另一臺(tái)設(shè)備建立自己的網(wǎng)絡(luò)。也就是說，兩臺(tái)智能設(shè)備，通過自己的無線信號(hào)或藍(lán)牙進(jìn)行互聯(lián)，這就是所謂的點(diǎn)對(duì)點(diǎn)連接，也即蘋果的點(diǎn)對(duì)點(diǎn)共享功能的原理。

????（你可能會(huì)想：“我看不出來它有什么顛覆性，或者有什么特別重要的地方?！保?/p>

????對(duì)！但是首先我們回溯到1995年，當(dāng)時(shí)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)還比較年輕和混亂，很多科技宅坐在電腦前面聯(lián)絡(luò)其它的科技宅，這些科技宅的電腦就是連接點(diǎn)，同時(shí)也是節(jié)點(diǎn)——即其他人加入網(wǎng)絡(luò)的接入點(diǎn)，而其他接入網(wǎng)絡(luò)的人又創(chuàng)造了另一個(gè)節(jié)點(diǎn)?；旧?，一個(gè)人的電腦可以直接連到另一個(gè)人的電腦，這樣就形成了一個(gè)“電腦鏈”。一個(gè)個(gè)電腦鏈組成了一個(gè)所謂網(wǎng)狀網(wǎng)絡(luò)。在很長(zhǎng)的一段時(shí)間里，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)都保持著這樣的形態(tài)，也就是由大量“小螞蟻”構(gòu)成的完全分散化的計(jì)算機(jī)群。隨著互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的發(fā)展，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)出現(xiàn)了一個(gè)重要的哲學(xué)上和物理上的變遷。它不再是一個(gè)均勻分布的網(wǎng)狀網(wǎng)絡(luò)，而依賴于一個(gè)個(gè)中心，也就是集線箱?？纯磳?shí)體互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的地圖，你就會(huì)明白這一點(diǎn)。

????（看到這里，大家會(huì)問：“那么這是一種不同的連接方式了，但它是一種更好的方式嗎？”）

????這是個(gè)好問題。不過答案是否定的，當(dāng)然不是，至少現(xiàn)在還不是。多點(diǎn)連接存在嚴(yán)重的缺陷，而且現(xiàn)在FireChat的連接范圍僅限于30英尺內(nèi)的另一部安裝了FireChat的設(shè)備。但是——這是一個(gè)重大的、關(guān)鍵的、重要的“但是”——網(wǎng)狀網(wǎng)絡(luò)的運(yùn)作方式是，網(wǎng)絡(luò)的規(guī)模越大，連接就越好，它的連接范疇也就越廣。因此如果你在一個(gè)體育館里，這里還有許多使用著FireChat的其他人，那么一瞬間你就有了一個(gè)很強(qiáng)大的網(wǎng)絡(luò)，而且它的范疇也遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不止３０英尺。

????（“怎么會(huì)這樣？”）

????想象一下“串行”理論，或者很久以前消防隊(duì)員排成的傳遞水桶的隊(duì)列。一臺(tái)設(shè)備連接到另一臺(tái)大概20英尺遠(yuǎn)的設(shè)備，這臺(tái)設(shè)備又連接到另一臺(tái)大概10英尺遠(yuǎn)的設(shè)備，距離疊加了起來，但是網(wǎng)絡(luò)仍然存在，而且其中的每個(gè)環(huán)節(jié)都增強(qiáng)了這個(gè)鏈條（而且每臺(tái)設(shè)備都連接了不只一臺(tái)設(shè)備——所以叫“網(wǎng)狀”網(wǎng)絡(luò)）。兩個(gè)相隔1000英尺遠(yuǎn)的人，通過20或30個(gè)人產(chǎn)生的鏈接就可以互聯(lián)。這個(gè)網(wǎng)絡(luò)的直徑可能達(dá)到幾英里遠(yuǎn)，理論上甚至可以覆蓋整個(gè)城鎮(zhèn)。

????A few weeks ago, a messaging app called FireChat launched. It looks, at first, like just about any other messaging app in an already very crowded market, but FireChat is sneakily subversive and quite possibly the most important thing to happen to the Internet since international network hubs began to form in 1995.

????(This is the moment when you ask: "Wait ... what? Why?")

????FireChat uses a criminally underexploited feature in iOS 7 called the Multipeer Connectivity Framework. This sounds fancy and complicated, but all it means is that one Apple (AAPL) device (an iPhone, an iPad, even an iPod touch) can connect to another without using the Internet. That last part is the most important and worth repeating: The device need not have a traditional network connection -- 3G, wireless, whatever -- but is instead creating its own network with another device. Two smart, connected machines, communicating via their own wireless signals, or Bluetooth, to talk to one another: This is what's called a peer-to-peer connection. It's also how Apple's Airdrop feature works.

????(You're probably thinking: "I don't see how this is subversive, or particularly important.")

????Right! Well, let's first go back to 1995, or even earlier, when the Internet was young and wild and mostly on university campuses, where various nerds in front of computers connected with various other nerds in front of computers, and those nerds' computers were connection points, but also nodes -- an entry point for others to join the network, and in so doing create another node, too. Basically, one person's computer could directly access the other person's computer, and so on, along a chain of computers. This evenly distributed, wholly interconnected web of machines is called a mesh network. It's the way the Internet was, mostly, for a long while: entirely decentralized constellations of connectivity among a vastness of, well, nothingness, 'net-wise. As the Internet grew, an important philosophical and physical shift occurred. Rather than an evenly distributed mesh network, the Internet became dependent on centers -- hubs for all those spokes. Look at a map of the physical Internet, and you'll see.

????(At which point you might ask: "So this is a different way to connect, but is it better?")

????Great question! No, of course not. Not yet. Multipeer connectivity has serious drawbacks, and FireChat only works when you are within about 30 feet of another person with a device that has FireChat. But -- and this is a huge, crucial, important "but" -- the way a mesh network works is that the larger the network, the greater the connections, the farther its reach. So if you are, say, in a stadium with a bunch of people using devices with FireChat, then presto: You have a rather robust network, over distances much greater than 30 feet.

????("How's that?")

????Think of a daisy chain, or an old-timey firefighter bucket brigade. One device connecting to another, maybe 20 feet away, and that one connects to another, maybe 10 feet away, and so on and so forth, the distances pile up, but the network remains, and each link is a link that strengthens the chain (and connects to more than one device -- hence the "mesh"). Two people that are 1,000 feet away from one another are able to connect using the links caused by 20 or 30 other devices. The network could be miles in diameter, even. Or the size of an entire town, theoretically.