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Re: In 1995, this astronomer predicted the Internet's greatest failure
From: "Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>
Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2017 19:41:06 -0400
Subject: Re: [IP] In 1995, this astronomer predicted the Internet's greatest failure Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2017 18:41:43 +0200 From: Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond <ocl () gih com> To: dave () farber net, dewayne () warpspeed com (for IP, if you wish) Dear Dave, no, no, no, no, no, no! No, not that again! Doom and gloom sells. Cassandras have prophesied accounts of war and doom, and people have been keen to echo their most terrible experiences to reinforce their own morose forecasts about the future of the world - and that it used to be so much better before. Well, I am sorry, but I maintain quite the opposite: that things are a lot better today than they ever were. Let's take Cliff Stoll's predictions. Now before I start, I must say that I have the uttermost respect for him, whilst having never met him in person, but having devoured his excellent book the Cuckoo's Egg back in 1989. Cliff shared an early version of his "predictions" on the USENET newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom - aka Telecom Digest (apparently the Internet's oldest mailing list) in a post entitled "Thrills of Long Distance", on 27 July 1992 - (The posting can be found on: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/comp.dcom.telecom/V4Dja8lt27Y/huUlemiwhq0J ) nearly 25 years ago - and I suspect took it several years to amplify them into a longer, more polished publication. Back then, I was an inexperienced PhD student with obviously too much time and optimism on my hands and a rosy view of the future. My response to Cliff's points, ( archived on: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/comp.dcom.telecom/IOkWaiFZ0uI/PVPmVQ83_YMJ ) might have been impertinent, and looking back now, having passed 40 years old many years ago, outrageously age-discriminatory, *but* I still maintain that we should not be longing for the "good old days". USENET might have withered away for all sorts of reasons, but the Internet itself has brought more good things to the world that any other technology I can think of - except, perhaps, the Wheel and Fire. Admittedly the cacophony of voices, fake news, information wars and hate propaganda have bruised and stretched the limits of our cosy but fragile democracies, but I still shed a tear of joy when I physically meet people from very deprived communities in Soweto, Dakar, Nakuru, Mumbai, Cairo, Cusco, X'ian, Ourika and so many other places, people from indigenous communities and people who are physically disabled, who tell me what the Internet has done for them, how it has improved their life, how it has enabled them to make a living, to put food on the family's table every evening. These are people who tell me they cannot find words strong enough to thank the people who have invented the Internet, because it has completely changed their life for the better. And yes, in their world, things were not better in the "good old days". Focussing on crying about the Internet of Hate and the angst that this is procuring us, including the stress of information overload, might well be a western world social disease as we reminisce about how much more harmonious our world used to be without the Internet. For the majority of the world out there, from what I hear and see, today appears to be way better than yesterday and the Internet often has something to do with this improvement. Cliff's Stoll's piece in 1995 has been regularly dug out as it was ridiculed by some people. Whilst I had an opposite view to his predictions I do admit that he was partially correct on some - and that's the great thing about the Internet: the diversity of views. Some call it a cacophony. Kindest regards, Olivier -- Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, PhD http://www.gih.com/ocl.htmlIn 1995, this astronomer predicted the Internet’s greatest failure And, of course, we trolled him for it for decades. By Rob Howard Jul 18 2017 <https://medium.com/the-mission/in-1995-this-astronomer-predicted-the-internets-greatest-failure-68a1c3927e46>Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: <http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/>
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