gadfly@ihuxn.UUCP (Gadfly) (01/03/86)
--
There's been a lot of noise about the future of the net--a lot
of name-calling and summoning of spirits. The defenders of
both order and chaos are having their appropriate days in the
last warm rays of a setting autumn sun. I have a suggestion for
*all* parties to the debate, as we face yet another winter of
discontent: Relax!
It's pretty clear that the network as currently conceived and
connected cannot support the traffic it has wrought. There
are large backbone machines that have no cycles left for useful
work. Since hacker self-restraint is the oxymoron of our
Unix(tm) times, it will be necessary more and more to deny
net access altogether, either by removing newsgroups or by
removing users themselves. A technological breakthrough is
always possible, but is highly unlikely for a handful of system
administrators to (1) put together in their spare time, and (2)
all agree on.
Consider our net as an oscillating universe. At the moment, it is
collapsing from its own weight. It will continue to collapse.
Soon there will be only about 4 newsgroups like net.info-terms
or net.bugs.2bsd that nobody even wants to read, but the 8 or so
diehards left will get amazingly fast response. They may then
create new, fun, newsgroups: net.art; net.clocks; net.plants!
And the net will spring to life once again.
--
*** ***
JE MAINTIENDRAI ***** *****
****** ****** 03 Jan 86 [14 Nivose An CXCIV]
ken perlow ***** *****
(312)979-7753 ** ** ** **
..ihnp4!iwsl8!ken *** ***