Earlier quoted context omitted.
That would be oppressive but at least the unfree activities are restricted to the parts of our life where we must deal with authorities. We are still free to do whatever we want with our free computers in all other cases. > Or even worse, what would happen if gov regulations started requiring ISPs to stop working with non-compliant hardware? I.e. something like requiring network devices to attest they are "oficially"…
Ad-hoc radio mesh networks are constrained by physics and math as far as throughput goes, they are not competitive with normal networks. Governments have also shown the ability to regulate radio usage very well the world over.
It doesn't have to be. The main goal is a free uncensorable network, if we must pay a price in performance for that, so be it. People use extremely old ThinkPads with libreboot because they're the last processors without Intel Management Engine.
> Governments have also shown the ability to regulate radio usage very well the world over.
Yes, because usually it's only a few people at a time who are interfering in radio communications. Easy to respond to a few isolated incidents. What if it was everyone at the same time?
What if every smartphone in the world could create and maintain its own mesh network? In some places there wouldn't even be a need for ISPs. They'd be needed for long distance connections only.