Re: Weekend Gedankenexperiment - The Kill Switch

[Michael Coxe <porgie217 () gmail com>]

On 02-05-11 8:29 PM, Fred Baker wrote:
> 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.


For more specifics from Paul Baran himself, you may read his interview 
with Stewart Brand. Lots of good stuff circa late 50s - early 60s.

        http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.03/baran_pr.html

one fun excerpt, re: asking the phone co to build a packet switch:

----
SB: How seriously did AT&T look at the proposal?

PB: The response was most interesting. The story I tell is of the time I 
went over to AT&T headquarters - one of many, many times - and there's a 
group of old graybeards. I start describing how this works. One stops me 
and says, "Wait a minute, son. Are you trying to tell us that you open 
the switch up in the middle of the conversation?" I say, "Yes." His 
eyeballs roll as he looks at his associates and shakes his head. We just 
weren't on the same wavelength.
----

Paul's memory is backed up by his meticulous records. I worked at Com21 
1997-2K and heard similar recounts from Paul over Com21 BBQ lunches at 
the company's Tasman site. I wished for a while he'd write a history but 
came to understand he's always been a doer not a historian.

Cheers,

 - Michael