[iDC] The internet that is not one
Alan Sondheim
sondheim at panix.com
Mon Jul 13 17:16:26 UTC 2009
It seems to me that the utilitarian logic implied in numeration here is
misplaced, particularly when one is dealing with fuzzy concepts to begin
with. The protocols are there, but there were bbs and Fidonet etc.
parallel to tcp/ip, and the historical precedents are everywhere, from the
so-called 'Victorian internet' (telegraph systems) to cb radio to early
crystal radio clubs - all with accompanying lingo, culture, technologies,
hardwares and softwares, codes, etc. One can go back to the messenger
system in Sumeria, Babylonia, Assyria, as well (see The Messenger in the
Ancient Semitic World by Meier). In any one of these systems, one/many is
moot and problematic - for that matter distributions of technologies bleed
into one another as telegraph and pony express interact, crystal radio
dxing and spark transmitters interact as well. Recently I was at a hamfest
in West Virginia, watching someone on portable shortwave connect with a
repeater in Tennessee which was connected to the Internet while he was on
a cellphone after having driven to the site of the fest at an airport with
its own interacting communications systems. For me, that's the hearts of
the matters.
- Alan
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