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From: chris@pyramid.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: who does it... // State of the art today?
Message-ID: <7254@pyramid.pyramid.com>
Date: Thu, 24-Sep-87 16:38:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyramid.7254
Posted: Thu Sep 24 16:38:44 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 26-Sep-87 13:58:30 EDT
References: <4319@spool.wisc.edu> <3048@hoptoad.uucp> <3050@hoptoad.uucp>
Reply-To: chris@pyramid.UUCP (Chris Guthrie)
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 70
Summary: Data Representation

I feel like the state-of-the-art has more to do with how we
view the computer world than what we view it with.

One of the major predictions in the Gibson books is of the
network having grown into a world of its own. In Neuromancer,
et al., this space is entered through cybernetic connections
called decks.  Tron had the same kind of innerspace based
on the inside of the computer.

Gibson is very cautious about the appearance of the world
inside the net.  Tron couldn't be that cautious.  Disney
Productions had to use pictures that we could understand
and objects that we see everyday.  Gibson adds to the mystique
of his novels by only allowing us small views into the minds
of his cowboys.

All this leads up to our network -- how we use it, and how
we view it.  I'll use the Internet for my example since it's
likely someday to become part of the larger net which Gibson
has turned into a world of his own.

Today, our use of the Internet involves getting from one point
to another -- computer to computer.  Few people use it solely
for the ride (even though I'm sure many have gotten a kick out
of telneting to another continent).  Very few users care about
how they get to another site and what sites they pass through.
When people consider the two sites they are using, they picture
it geographically rather than according to net topology.

In Gibson's network you can go out on the net and look for things,
namely protected corporate and military computing hubs.  You know
where you are and have some idea of where you want to go.  You can
stop, take your bearings, and explore.

Only the rudiments of this exist on the Internet today.  So much
effort has gone into making the network transparent, that today
few people understand it, and even fewer can understand what it's
doing at any given time.  For example, at Berkeley a program was
written to send out icmp packets that would collect data about
the gateways they had gone through.  Unfortunately, many vendors
haven't bothered to support this in their networking code.  Some
gateways even crash when queried, making the program dangerous
to use on the net.  However, this kind of software would form a
base for future software that can 'ride' the net.

The second problem with 'riding' the net is that of the geographical
vs. topographical view of the network.  The Network Information
Center will send you neat little maps of the various networks
which show the connections and the locations of the sites on the
various networks they support.  All are printed on nice maps of the
US or the world.  A tremendous amount of useful information is not
provided, though.  Network speeds, local area networks, gateways
to other networks, machine types -- this information is all
essential to knowing where you are and where you're going.

What I expect to see in the near future are programs that can
graphically represent the network using color workstations.  These
programs will be able to dynamically display the network using
a direct connection to the network and querying various gateways
and machines for information on the network's behavior.  This
kind of information (to the best of my knowledge) isn't currently
available, but I expect as the networks grow it will become important
enough to those administrating them, to make these hooks necessary.
The administrators will doubtless be followed onto the net by next
year's cowboys and hackers.

At this point we will start looking at the network less as a bunch
of wires strung together and more as a computer in its own right.
After all, hasn't Sun been using the motto "The network is the
computer" for a while now?