M.A.D. Internet roots

[Jasper Fidget]

I never disputed that.  I disputed its present day similarity.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
> Behalf Of pynchonoid
> Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2003 4:19 PM
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: M.A.D. Internet roots
> 
> --- Malignd <malignd at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > <<Wrong.  ARPANET's was designed as a network that
> > would withstand massive enemy attack and still
> > permit
> > the US government to maintain command and control,
> > that is not a requirement applied retroactively.>>
> >
> > Yes, you've said that.  So have I.  So have others.
> 
> Actually, the ARPANET as origin of the Internet was
> disputed by Mr. Fidget.
> 
> >  This
> > primitive interent was for a government to maintain
> > command and control of its own affairs not the
> > affairs
> > of its citizens
> 
> So you're arguing that the government's concern is not
> its citizens, but instead its own survivability.
> That's the problem, of course -- one that has been
> wonderfully lampooned in the black comedy Dr.
> Strangelove, where nuclear war provides the
> opportunity for the US ruling elite to shack up with
> multiple wives, etc., while  ordinary citizens turn
> into ash.
> 
> 
> > And its means of withstanding attack was
> > decentralization.
> 
> Which permits its use now for social control as
> Pynchon observes.  Decentralization of the network
> offers millions of places within the Internet to snoop
> on people (then lock them up if necessary).
> 
> The Internet emerges as a part of the Mutally Assured
> Destruction scenarios that Pynchon, and others, have
> rightfully characterized as "criminally insane."
> 
> Fortunately, people have found a way to use this tool,
> the Internet, like others before it, in constructive,
> creative ways.  Unfortunately, this hasn't prevented
> governments from using the same tool for social
> control (in both positive and negative forms), nor has
> it prevented corporations from using the Internet to
> induce the forms of behavior they desire.
> 
> 
> 
> =====
> <http://www.pynchonoid.org/>
> 
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