Indianapolis Scientech Club newsletter, May 16, 1994
Source: http://www.digitalindy.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/sc/id/10142/

Vol.71 No. 19
May 16. 1993
Attendance 53
INTERNET
Many years ago, we addressed the problem of successful
communications after a nuclear. The solution was to establish a
decentralized communications network without a central
authority. All the nodes in the network would be equal in status
to all other nodes and each node has the authority to originate,
pass, and receive messages. The messages are divided into
packets and each packet is separately addressed. Each message
begins at a specified source node, winds its way through the
network on an individual basis, and ends at some other specified
destination node.
A communication standard known as TCP/IP converts messages
into streams of packets at the source and reassembles them back
into messages at their destination. The brand-names, content, and
ownership of the computers are irrelevant as long as they can
speak TCP/IP. It is easy to link these computers to the network
using the TCP/IP protocol. The network became known as the
Intenet and the basic technology of this network is decentralized
and anarchic.
The Internet is a rare example of a true, modem, functional
anarchy. There are no official censors, no bosses, no board of
directors, no stockholders. In principle, any node can speak as a
peer to any other node, as long as it obeys the rules of the TCP/IP
protocols, which are strictly technical, not social or political.
This "anarchy" may seem strange or even unnatural, but it makes
a certain deep and basic sense. It's like the "anarchy" of the
English language. Nobody owns English. As an English-speaking person, it's up to you to learn how to speak English
properly and make whatever use you please. Everybody pitches
in, and somehow the English language evolves on its own, and
turns out workable. Though a lot of people earn their living from
using, exploiting, and teaching English, "English" as an
institution is public property and a public good. Much the same
goes for the Internet. Would English be improved if the "The
English Language, Inc." had a board of directors and a chief
executive officer, or a President and a Congress? There would
probably be a lot fewer new words in English, and a lot fewer new
ideas.
Connecting to the Internet cost the taxpayer little or nothing,
because each node is independent and has to handle its own
financing. Since TCP/IP is public-domain, many linked up to the
network. The more, the merrier. Like the phone network, the
computer network became steadily more valuable as it embraced
larger and larger territories of people and resources. It is a
bargain to the user. The Internet as a whole, unlike the phone
system, does not charge for long-distance service or access time.
Each group of people accessing the Internet is responsible for
their own machine and their own section of line.
The Internet is popular among scientists, and is probably the most
important scientific instrument of the late twentieth century. The
pace of growth is spectacular. It is spreading faster than cellular
phones, and fax machines. The number of "host" machines with
direct connection to TCP/IP have been doubling every year since
1988. The future of the Internet bids to be bigger and it is being
upgraded and will be fifty times faster than the fastest network
available today. The entire Encyclopedia Britannica will be
transferred in one second, it will feature 3-D animated graphics,
radio and cellular phone-links to portable computers, as well as
fax, voice, and high definition television. A multimedia global
circus
What does one do with the Internet? Four things, basically: mail,
discussion groups, file transfers, and long-distance computing .
1. Internet mail is "e-mail," electronic mail, faster by several
orders of magnitude than the US Mail, which is scornfully known
by Internet regulars as "snail mail." Internet mail is somewhat
like fax. It's electronic text that you do not have to pay for. E-
mail can also send software and certain forms of compressed
digital imagery. New forms of mail are in the works.
2. The discussion groups, or "news groups," are a world of their
own. This world of news, debate and argument is generally
known as USENET. USENET is rather like an enormous
billowing crowd of gossipy, news-hungy people, wandering in
and through the Internet on their way to various private backyard
barbecues. There are some 2,500 separate news groups on
USENET. The variety of subjects discussed is enormous, and it's
growing larger all the time.
3. File transfers allow Intenet users to access remote machines
and retrieve programs or text. Many Internet computers allow
any person to access them anonymously, and to simply copy their
public files, free of charge. This is no small deal, since entire
books can be transferred through direct Internet access in a matter
of minutes. There are over a million such public files available
to anyone who asks for them. Internet file-transfers are becoming
a new form of publishing, in which the reader simply electronically copies the work on demand, in any quantity he or she wants,
for free. Internet programs, such as "archie, gopher, world wide
web, and WAIS." have been developed to catalog and explore
these enormous archives of material.
4. Long-distance computing is still a very useful service.
Programmers can maintain accounts on distant, powerful
computers, run programs there or write their own. Scientists can
make use of powerful super computers a continent away.
Libraries offer their electronic card catalogs for free search.
Enormous CD-ROM catalogs are increasingly available trough
this service. And there are fantastic amounts of free software
available.
Any computer of sufficient power is a potential for the Internet,
and today such computers seli forless than $2,000. The network
is spreading exponentially. It resembles the spread of personal
computing in the 1970s, though it is even faster and perhaps more
important.
How does one get access to the Intenet? Well, if you do not have
a computer and a modem, get one. Your computer can act as a
terminal, and you can use an ordinary telephone line to connect
to an Internet-linked machine. These slower and simpler adjuncts
to the Intenet can provide you with the netnews discussion groups
and your own e-mail address.
If you are on a campus, your university may have direct
"dedicated access" to high-speed Internet TCP/IP lines. Apply for
an Internet account on a dedicated campus machine, and you may
be able to get those long-distance computing and file-transfer
functions. Businesses increasingly have Internet access, and are
willing to sell it to subscribers.
As the Nineties proceed, finding a link to the Internet will become
much cheaper and easier. Its ease of use will also improve.
Learning the Internet now, or at least learning about it, is wise.
By the rum of the century, "network literacy," like "computer
literacy" before it, will be forcing itself into the very texture of
your life.
Kent Sharp, editor pro-tem

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Title 	Indianapolis Scientech Club newsletter, May 16, 1994
Publisher 	Indianapolis Scientech Club
Date 	1994-05-16; 1994
Time period 	1990s (1990-1999)
Subject 	Indianapolis Scientech Club--Periodicals
Clubs--Indiana--Indianapolis
Indianapolis (Ind.)--Periodicals
Genre 	Newsletters
Collection 	Indianapolis Scientech Club
Rights 	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Copyright information 	Copyright is held by Indianapolis Scientech Club.
Physical repository 	Indiana State Library
Digital publisher 	Indianapolis Marion County Public Library
Vendor 	Crossroads Document Services;
Date added 	2016-09