Re: Weekend Gedankenexperiment - The Kill Switch

[Fred Baker <fred () cisco com>]

On Feb 5, 2011, at 6:11 PM, Dave CROCKER wrote:

> On 2/5/2011 6:43 AM, Fred Baker wrote:
> > On Feb 4, 2011, at 9:49 PM, Hayden Katzenellenbogen wrote:
> > > Not sure if it has been said already but wasn't one of the key point for
> > > the creation of the internet to create and infrastructure that would
> > > survive in the case of all out war and massive destruction. (strategic
> > > nuclear strikes)
> >
> > Urban legend, although widely believed. Someone probably made the observation.
>
>
> Maybe not quite an UL...
>
>   <http://www.rand.org/about/history/baran.html>
>
> On the average, The Rand Corp is extremely careful about what it publishes, yet here it is, repeating the claim.

But Len Kleinrock adamantly disputes it.

> Back in the '70s, I always heard "survive hostile battlefield conditions" and never heard anyone talk about comms 
> survival of a nuclear event, but I wasn't in any interesting conversations, such as in front of funding agencies...

To survive an EMP, electronics needs some fancy circuitry. I've never worked with a bit of equipment that had it. It 
would therefore have to have been through path redundancy.