If they go so far as to be partition tolerant then you get a lot of resiliency wins. i.e. if a solar flare knocks out anything attached to a long enough cable to induce circuit-damaging current, you can still gossip messages between colocated devices, some of which might be en route to someplace distant. Secure Scuttlebutt Protocol works in this mode for example.
In such a scenario, being able to piggyback messages on travellers you don't know (even if it takes a few days to propagate) could be lifesaving.
There's also something to be said re: censorship. If you can facilitate comms between otherwise firewalled groups of people by simply sneaking a SD card across the border from time to time, that's right in line with Meta's mission statement.
I doubt that Meta is going to make it this decentralized. Whatever they build is going to be decentralized™. But it would be pretty cool to see this design space explored.
If they go so far as to be partition tolerant then you get a lot of resiliency wins. i.e. if a solar flare knocks out anything attached to a long enough cable to induce circuit-damaging current, you can still gossip messages between colocated devices, some of which might be en route to someplace distant. Secure Scuttlebutt Protocol works in this mode for example.
In such a scenario, being able to piggyback messages on travellers you don't know (even if it takes a few days to propagate) could be lifesaving.
There's also something to be said re: censorship. If you can facilitate comms between otherwise firewalled groups of people by simply sneaking a SD card across the border from time to time, that's right in line with Meta's mission statement.
I doubt that Meta is going to make it this decentralized. Whatever they build is going to be decentralized™. But it would be pretty cool to see this design space explored.