~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ eye WEEKLY March 10 1994 Toronto's arts newspaper ...free every Thursday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ COVER STORY COVER STORY CHEAP THRILLS ON THE INTERNET Where You're On a Level Playing Field With Bill Clinton! Where the Pentagon is Just Another ID Number! Subvert the System! Entertain Crackpots! by K.K.Campbell Just before writing this very paragraph you are now reading, O Gentle Readers, I cruised the planet. I checked my electronic mail and found a dozen letters -- one from Santa Cruz, another from Canberra, two from Dublin; I then zoomed off to a Boulder, Colorado computer to do some work with some files that are stored there; after that, for a little relaxation, I type-chatted a friend in Cairo, Egypt, and she whined how much she misses Toronto; after trying to lift her spirits, I ducked into a continent-wide discussion on how many references to Kubrick's 2001 were in the last Simpsons episode. All from my dusty home computer. _This_ is McLuhan's global village. And it is called the Internet. The Internet is a way to communicate and send great quanities of data -- be they texts, games, pictures. It is as easy to interact with a person in Etobicoke as it is someone in Helsinki. It is estimated 500,000 Canadians are now "on" the Internet, a number increasing roughly 10 per cent per month. Functional Anarchy Any time I try to explain to acquaintances what the Internet is, their first response is invariably: "Neat. So who owns it?" Nobody. And this is what makes it so remarkable. The Internet is perhaps the world's most perfect example of a functional anarchy -- proof that people can operate outside of rigid heirarchies. This is not to say there aren't limits to connecting. But there is no "headquarters", no "Internet Inc.", where plans are made and issues ordered. The idea is simple. The thing is just a big bunch of computers connected by wire. What makes it remarkable, as opposed to a boring big bunch of computers connected by wire, is the way it's _organized_: horizontally. It is a free-for-all, to which anyone can connect and once so connected is "master of his own domain", as it were. And this is what drives centralizers and control-freaks batshit -- whether they be in government, business, law enforcement, or education. They know they can't control the Internet or what people do on it. There are simply no "superior" computers on the Internet able to dictate to "inferior" computers. Want proof? Trip into Internet's "Usenet newsgroups". In these public discussion groups you are guaranteed to find something to offend everyone. There is a complete lack of censorship (which requies centralized authority). Unfortunately, many people seem unfamiliar with such freedom and act like giddy assholes. Then try out a centralized, anal-retentive business venture like Prodigy, where you can be censored for discussing Northern Irish politics. Business fears offense because you might decide not to give them your money. The Internet doesn't give a damn. And it's wonderful. The 15th century invention of the moveable printing press (by Johann Gutenberg) revolutionized society. It decentralized information. People could access books relatively easily, taking away the monopoly of monastic libraries. This is Phase Two. Now anyone is a publisher with but a computer and modem, not just those with enough capital to set up a costly publishing house. On the Internet, "electronic magazines" are available for thousands, if not millions, to read. The Internet permits groups marginalized by the mainstream media to find a voice. In the 1960s, the underground press tried several "newswire" projects, sending news packets around, to keep the underground media informed and healthy. They all failed because they were too slow, cumbersome, and couldn't compete with the big-bucks newswires. Now, with even a free account, the underground press can use the Internet as the ultimate newswire, competing, and even surpassing, the dinosaur-like mainstream newsmedia. For instance, Toronto's own ACTup and Anti-Racist Action material appears for all the world to see. This is a way to circumvent the deeply-entrenched media monopoly. Here, you can get reams of alternative news and perspectives. Big news stories take on a different dimension on the Internet. The Gulf War, the 1991 fall of Communism or Yeltsin's Moscow coup last year, Los Angeles' recent earthquake -- all these events were "reported" by "ordinary people" who live in these areas. You do not have to depend solely on some blown-dried, trench-coated, power-coopted "reporter" for the "conventional wisdom" dished up to us on the nightly news. Any activist group not hooked in to the Internet has only itself to blame. Post-Nuclear Fantasies The next question people ask is: "If nobody owns it, who built it?" Everyone one on the Internet "builds" it by connecting to it. Each connection expands it. Including your own. But as to how it began, it was born of the Pentagon. I kid you not. Proof yet again that truth is stranger than fiction. In the 1960s, the U.S. RAND Corporation (a Cold War think-tank) was presented the strategic-military problem: how could authorities communicate in a post-nuclear America? Conventional models of power are "hub" oriented -- information is power, so communication tends also to be hubbed. The ability of nuclear weapons to annihilate The Hub means the little spokes emanating from it can no longer communicate. The RAND idea was simple enough: eliminate hierarchy. Create a network where no point was "higher" than any other point. The whole communication network would be designed from the start to operate in anarchy. That way, post-nuclear chaos wouldn't seem particularly daunting. If one point is nuked, another route is tried. Information bounces around, until it finds a path that works -- even if this means travelling from Vancouver to Toronto by way of Aukland, New Zealand. This is clearly inefficient, but it _is_ what it was designed to be: rugged and functional in the worst of conditions, including nuclear holocaust. In 1964, RAND made its solution public. In 1969, the Pentagon began actually building it. By 1971, there were four computer connections. Soon entire local networks joined, creating a vast network of networks dubbed the "Internet." Today, there are tens of thousands of connections, and maybe 12 million readers, spread throughout some 50 countries -- there is even an Internet connection in Antarctica. The Pentagon is now merely a connection. It is one of the ironic wonders of the world that this functional anarchy, in which the impositon of authority is almost impossible, developed out of a plan by the Pentagon, the world's most imperialistic authoritarian institution, to _maintain_ control after it launched armageddon. Howling in the Wires There most definitely _is_ an Internet community. Let a couple of Internetters find each other at a party, and they will yap to each other the rest of night. There are untold numbers of "tall tales" and "net legends". For instance, I recently witnessed an angry debate over the establishment of something called "ChristNet". In the heat of argument, a U.S. air force lieutenant logged-in from a military computer and made vague threats to an opponent of ChristNet, implying people shouldn't mess with him because he's in the military. In no time, an air force superior in another part of the country popped up, blasted the lieutenant for improper conduct (personal use of a military machine as well as threatening a civilian) and promised to notify his superiors the moment he finished typing. Indeed, that air force lieutenant has never been heard from again. There is no doubt a great quantity of Internet information is garbage, ramblings from loons and wackos howling in the wires. You run across neo-Nazi Holocaust-denial and "UFO researchers" ranting about how the Chretien and Clinton are selling out us citizens to evil Zeta Riticuli aliens from Bernard's Star. There have been many attempts to "remove" an rabid anti-Semite in Oregon and an anti-Armenian Turkish racist in Minnesota from the Internet. But it can't be done. Instead, you have to take measures at your own end -- create filters to weed out the crap. You have to manage your own head, not the head of others. There are no thought cops to run to. That's the price you pay to free your own voice in this medium. Once in, all are equal. Whether you are Marxist or monarchist, white or black, male or female, sane or insane, you have the same "rights" on the Internet. A recent newspaper cartoon showed two dogs sitting before a computer screen, typing. One dog turns to the other and notes: "On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog." Planet Earth is wired. Jack in. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ COVER SIDEBAR 1 COVER SIDEBAR 1 COMMERCIAL WASTELAND by K.K.Campbell Corporate North America is very hot about the "information superhighway" -- which will empower millions, establish true democracy, save lives, and bring lasting peace to the Middle East. I don't buy it for a second. Strip away the hype and the "superhighway" is nothing but a glorified high-tech home shopping club. Big deal. I don't know about you, but I can only get so excited about downloading movies or ordering pizza from the "information superhighway". "Information superhighway" is a euphemism for "commercialized Internet". Regard anyone using the term "information superhighway" instead of the Internet akin to a narc asking you "where to get some good weed, maaan". The Information Techology Association of Canada (ITAC) recently held a conference at Toronto's Metro Convention Centre, entitled "Powering up North America: a conference on the information superhighway". ITAC represents Canada's $43-billion, 300,000-person info-tech industry. It was clear from the conference none of the corporate elite know what the "information superhighway" is -- but they all agree the Internet is the proto-type of it. And they all think the Internet should be be privatized. If that happens, the the story of the decade won't be the Internet itself, but the commercialization of it. The opening conference speaker was MIT economist Rudiger Dornsbusch, who apparently sees the information superhighway as a mere extension of the NAFTA and the GATT. He wants the public sector entirely removed from the process, claiming anything designed by government will be a "cow with 11 legs". And this might well be true! But will the private sector deliver any better a product? Author George Gilder, once an economic consultant to the Reagan/Bush administrations, painted a different picture. The real technological revolution is evolving out of fibre optics drastically cutting delivery costs. It will cost next to nothing to send things along the "superhighway". "Bandwidth scarcity will be replaced with bandwidth abundance," Gilder said. Simple supply-and-demand predicts the complete collapse of TV and cable companies (hasta la vista Ted Rogers). With profit largely removed from _carrying_ the information, business has to find a new profit source: the information itself. And here is where the trouble begins. Information can be disseminated virtually free on the Internet. Copies are made without cost. There is no profit here for the same reason there is no profit in carriage -- superabundance. So profit from information will have to come from _artificial scarcity_, by restricting the availability of information, by setting up gates everywhere, by vigorously punishing copyright infringement through Net Cops. Profit-seekers suddenly become the symbol of _restriction_ of information flow. Private interests will be forced to drop the high-sounding rhetoric about "empowering humanity" and engage in information _repression_. I wasn't the only one to notice the contradiction in attitude among the corporate speakers. At the very end of the conference, a 14-member round robin panel was conducted. The panel moderator, Arthur Miller, former PBS talk show host, observed that once the business panelists finished with the hossanahs about open-access, empowerment and free speech, they then engaged in nothing but talk of the opposite -- anti-pornography laws, social codes of conduct, proprietary rights, copyright cops, on and on. Miller hinted at the dilemma: How is it these great champions of the superhighway, driven only by profit, are supposed to advance the social benefits of universal online access to the global village? No one answered it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ COVER SIDEBAR 2 COVER SIDEBAR 2 JUMP INTO THE NET by K.K.Campbell To connect, you need a computer (any make), and a modem (a device which hooks your comuter to your phone line, so you can send what you type out to the Internet). Modems today are cheap, starting around $100. Once you have the key, you need to find a door. Many people find their portal through work or school. Almost every university has an Internet connection. Inquire. For the rest of us proles, we have to find a local connection. There are two flavors: public and pay. Many sociologists fear the "information age" creates two classes of citizen -- information haves and have-nots. Will the lower classes be able to access the Internet? Public connections are designed to ensure this. The city's first big public connection will be the Toronto FreeNet, starting operation at the end of the month. It will have 200-300 phonelines for people to login free and get limited Internet access -- just email and "newsgroups". FreeNets already exist in some cities, such as Ottawa, Victoria and Cleveland. For those who want the full Net rush in their veins, there are several affordable pay connections in Toronto. One is Internex Online. Internex also has free accounts, but the real value is the complete package which lets you access _all_ the Internet services. Depending on the amount of daily online time you want, this can cost up to $300/year. Compare that to what you pay a year for cable TV, its value becomes apparent. Television is a one-way, brain-dead colossus. Snippets of info are squeezed between shotgun-blasts of commercials. The Internet is the direct opposite: an interactive raging torrent of information, absolutely no blatant commercial activity. What Internex does is act as a "host site", your link to the Internet. When you "join", you have an account created for you, which gives you access to their access. When you get your account, Internex assigns you a special "Internet address". It might look like this: janedoe@io.org. This odd looking thing means that an account called "janedoe" exists at (@) io.org -- "io" stands for Internex Online, the "org" suffix indicates that "io" is an organization. There are several suffixes. Universities always have .edu at the end, meaning "educational". The remarkable thing is that if anyone in any part of the world writes an electronic letter with the address "janedoe@io.org", that letter will travel to you. It will hunt you down, from all the people on Planet Earth, in a matter of minutes and be waiting for you to login and read it. There are four basic things to do on the Internet: MAIL: The lightning post-office. NEWSGROUPS: Public access discussion groups about thousands of topics, ranging from Industry Canada press releases to Karla Homolka gossip -- the latter allowed Canadians to read the banned Washington Post article seized at our borders. Another example of the lack of hierachical control on the Internet. REMOTE COMPUTING: From your little home desktop computer, you can login to powerful computers in other parts of the world and work on there. FILE TRANSFER: Swap files, be they games, pictures (lots of porn here, folks), or textual information, such as electronic magazines (e-zines). Internex can be reached in old-fashioned voice mode at 363-8676, or call 363-4151 with your modem. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Retransmit freely in cyberspace Author holds standard copyright Full issue of eye available in archive ==> gopher.io.org or ftp.io.org eye@io.org "Break the Gutenberg Lock..." 416-971-8421