chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg) (01/22/91)
[ Followups to news.misc ]
I'm not sure that an earlier article got out; if it did, I apologize
for the inconvenience.
"What is the address of the telephone network?"
There is no such thing as "the telephone network." There once was
something that was almost equivalent to "the U.S. telephone network";
it was called AT&T. Post-divestiture, even that is gone.
Look closely at what you might consider "the telephone network." You
will find, not one entity, but many. The individual parts that make
it up in the U.S are the federal government (regulation), AT&T, GTE,
MCI, etc, etc. Look outside the U.S. and you see the national post
offices, each of which runs its own telephone system. They cooperate,
but they are distinct.
Likewise Usenet, but to the Nth degree. Each site is a fiefdom unto
itself. The only commonality among sites is the data exchange format,
namely, the Usenet article format. And even that isn't universal,
since Usenet articles also propagate as E-Mail (RFC822 and otherwise),
BITNET files, etc, etc.
It is true that the cooperation of various independent entities seems
to take on an independent existence; but such seeming existence is an
illusion. "The telephone network" and Usenet are nothing more than
consensual hallucinations.
So the answer to "where is the telephone network" is the same as the
answer to "where is Usenet": "Nowhere in particular." Usenet has no
existence of its own. Thus, in a very real sense, it does not exist.
--
Chip Salzenberg at Teltronics/TCT <chip@tct.uucp>, <uunet!pdn!tct!chip>
"If Usenet exists, then what is its mailing address?" -- me
"c/o The Daily Planet, Metropolis." -- Jeff Daiell