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From: robertj@yale-zoo-suned..arpa (Rob Jellinghaus)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Bioproduced nanocomputers
Message-ID: <18947@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 15-Nov-87 16:33:14 EST
Article-I.D.: yale-cel.18947
Posted: Sun Nov 15 16:33:14 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 17-Nov-87 01:42:05 EST
References: <8710290154.AA09880@agent99.wedge.com> <21526@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
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In article <21526@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu.UUCP (David Phillip Oster) writes:
>Imagine a system as easy to use and as complete as the average university
>library, but where any document can be annottated by anyone at anytime.
>(And any reader can choose to turn off any subset of annotations he does
>not wish to see.)
>In a system where everyone has his say, but most people spend most of their
>reading time reading material that has been editted by editors they trust,
>in a system where each document has fast links to every document it references
>and each document that references it, flaky theories get their rebuttals
>attached strongly and quickly.
...
>Conclusion:
>How can we evolve usenet news into such a system?
>(There Nick, I've tied nanotechnology to Stuart II.)
>
>--- David Phillip Oster            --A Sun 3/60 makes a poor Macintosh II.
>Arpa: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu --A Macintosh II makes a poor Sun 3/60.
>Uucp: {uwvax,decvax,ihnp4}!ucbvax!oster%dewey.soe.berkeley.edu

In Stewart Brand's book about MIT's Media Lab, there is a passage
in which the director of the Lab is telling an audience that AT&T
currently has the capability to put fiber-optic cabling into every
home in America.  "What would be the bandwidth of such a system?"
he is asked.  "500 gigabits per second," he calmly replies.

This is the only way that a hypertext authoring system such as the
one above could become real.  (The supercomputers to hold all the
works themselves don't exist yet, but that's not my point.)  Nearly
universal access to this hyperlibrary would be essential to a full
implementation of this hyper-authoring scheme.

My response to David's question above (in case you were wondering
where this is all leading) is tha Usenet in its current form is
simply not suited to the kind of real-time interaction that this
authoring system would require.  If every household in America
got Usenet, that would be a start.  If Usenet was a real-time mode
of communication, rather than a delayed-propagation article relay
network (is that just a bunch of buzzwords?), that would help,
too.  But until we have the kind of omnipresent massive bandwidth
that the Media Lab's director mentions above, such a system will
remain largely imaginary.

(By the way, Stewart Brand's book about the Lab should be required
reading for anyone subscribing to this newsgroup.  You will all be
fascinated by it.  I unfortunately don't have my copy here, but
mail to me for publisher's information, as well as for references
to the material cited above.)

Rob Jellinghaus                | "Lemme graze in your veldt,
jellinghaus@yale.edu.UUCP      |  Lemme trample your albino,
ROBERTJ@{yalecs,yalevm}.BITNET |  Lemme nibble on your buds,
!..!ihnp4!hsi!yale!jellinghaus |  I'm your... Love Rhino" -- Bloom County