[ih] The Sub-atomic Physics of The Internet

[Jack Haverty]

Hi Bob,

The key is what you said - "one gets to be on as many planets as one
wants at the same time".   That's analogous to the situation that
existed before ARPANET.  The folks at ARPA could work at a terminal
connected to one of their "planets" (computer somewhere), and they could
have as many terminals as they could fit in the office.  But it was very
tedious to work that way, e.g., to send some message to several of their
"planets", they had to type it in to every terminal.

The ARPANET, and email, fixed that problem.  For a while, pretty much
everyone you interacted with was "on the net" and easy to interact with.

Today, that's no longer true.  Some people use email, some use Facebook,
or Instagram, etc.  Some do multiple "connections" at the same time.  
But there's again no reasonable way (that I've found) to interact
simultaneously with several people on different planets.  It's a little
easier now, doing cut-and-paste rather than retyping on a different
terminal, but not all that different from the pre-ARPANET era.

That's why I coined the term "SocialNet" - an "internet" providing
connectivity at the social level.

/Jack




On 9/1/20 11:23 AM, Bob Hinden wrote:
> Hi Jack,
>
> We always had the idea of multiple applications on the Internet.   As you point out
>
>   TCP/IP, which formed the basic "glue" of The Internet
>
> I don’t see an issue with different applications (planets in this article), and in this model one gets to be on as many planets as one wants at the same time.   Seems to me some of the separation driven by different languages, I am unlikely to use an app that is focused on content in a language I don’t understand.
>
> The two big things I worry about are that many of the large application platforms are owned by the same company (that is, Facebook owns Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp), and that the TCP/IP Internet is getting more divided as countries block content at their borders.
>
> Bob
>
>
>
>
>> On Aug 29, 2020, at 10:34 AM, Jack Haverty via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>>
>> My apologies - yes, I should have looked to Astronomy rather than
>> Physics on seeing that graphic.
>>
>> The deja vu experience I was trying to relate was from two historical
>> seminal events.
>>
>> One was in the late 60s, when many sites, usually universities, had
>> computer facilities, and one could "choose" which to use, usually by
>> choosing an institution to join.   The movers and shakers at ARPA had
>> multiple terminals, one for each institution they were sponsoring, and
>> it was tedious to constantly shift back and forth to interact with their
>> remote colleagues.   To address that issue, ARPA created the ARPANET.
>>
>> Through the 70s and 80s, other network technologies appeared, and one
>> could choose which to use, and interact with others on that network.
>> But some projects required interactions between different networks.  So
>> ARPA created TCP/IP, which formed the basic "glue" of The Internet.
>>
>> Now, in 2020, dozens of large social media "platforms" have evolved,
>> built on The Internet, yet it is very tedious to interact across their
>> boundaries (as Dave Crocker illustrated).   AFAIK, no one has yet
>> created the "SocialNet" to glue them all together.
>>
>> I agree choice is a good thing.  It allows one to pick a mechanism most
>> suited to your own needs.  It fosters competition and survival of the
>> fittest.
>>
>> But one particular "choice" has been very popular - the choice of using
>> a mechanism that integrates the various "planets" into a cohesive
>> community.  In the 70s, the ARPANET grew explosively because it provided
>> that cohesion among diverse computers.  In the 90s, the Internet
>> similarly exploded across the world, integrating all sorts of physical
>> networks.
>>
>> Now we have a lot of "planets" again.   There are even more
>> "planetesimals" if you consider all the forums and discussion groups,
>> media publications with hyperactive "comments" areas, and other such
>> closed communities.   Personally, I find it virtually impossible to keep
>> track of it all, and not miss things that I really should see.   I don't
>> seem to have the choice of using a cohesive interface to multiple
>> planets.   At least I haven't found it.
>>
>> My deja vu sense tells me that it's a similar situation to that at the
>> time of the ARPANET and Internet emergence.  ARPA seems to have gone on
>> to other things, so I just wonder who will continue the pattern of
>> Internet History.  And if.
>>
>> /Jack Haverty
>>
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