Still Nabokov-free WAS Re: NN Gibson re Orwell

[Jasper Fidget]

> You don't know what you're talking about it. Fact is,
> the Internet is controlled by corporations, which are
> licensed by governments to manage and implement the
> various software and hardware systems that are the
> Internet.

This is terribly simplistic and inaccurate.  These "software and hardware
and systems" you mention are *decentralized*, and supplied by ISPs, telecom
companies, and other Points of Presence (like the server sitting next to my
desk) which are subject to government control only insofar as they are
regulated by that government on that government's soil (as radio frequencies
or controlled substances are regulated).  And even the aggregate of ISPs and
telecoms and PoPs cannot be said to comprise (let alone "control") the
internet, which is such a chaotic network of networks that nobody even has
any idea of its size.
 
Granted, a country like China (that attempts to control everything) might
attempt to control it's own backbone pipes and Network Access Points, but
that's hardly controlling the "internet".  If anyone "controls" the internet
it would be private-sector not-for-profit international organizations like
ICANN or IETF who perform the function of developing, establishing, and
monitoring adherence to the standards that allow it to function.

In terms of *licensing*, perhaps you're thinking of country code domains
(like .de or .jp)?  If so, these don't even scratch the surface of what
makes up the internet.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
> Behalf Of pynchonoid
> Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 1:45 PM
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Still Nabokov-free WAS Re: NN Gibson re Orwell
> 
> --- Malignd <malignd at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > <<I can see why some P-listers might like Gibson's
> > view
> > of the Internet better than Pynchon's -- I expect
> > they
> > also suffer G's delusion that the image of an
> > empowering Internet somehow gives individuals some
> > sort of parity with the multinational corporations
> > and
> > government entities that control the Internet.>>
> >
> > This is hysterical and false; there is no such
> > control.
> 
> You don't know what you're talking about it. Fact is,
> the Internet is controlled by corporations, which are
> licensed by governments to manage and implement the
> various software and hardware systems that are the
> Internet.
> >
> > <<Pynchon knows better -- he's wiser, and more
> > insightful.>>
> >
> > He in fact offers no insight.  He merely makes his
> > dire prediction.
> 
> I disagree.  In the Foreword he follows up on what
> he's written about the Internet in his Stone Junction
> intro (a concrete example of Internet use to the
> detriment of civil liberties), and in Vineland, where
> government control of computer networks serves as a
> plot element.
> 
> Aside from a brain-dead denial, Malign offers no
> support for the anti-Pynchon argument in this instance
> 
> 
> 
> =====
> <http://www.pynchonoid.org/>
> 
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