[10077] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: What goes around, comes around
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dave Hughes)
Sun Feb 6 09:09:43 1994
From: dave@oldcolo.com (Dave Hughes)
To: PAUL@tdr.com
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 1994 07:07:11 -0700 (MST)
Cc: com-priv@psi.com (compriv), ethics-l@vm.gmd.de
In-Reply-To: <01.1994Feb06.01h04m33s.PAUL-d100000@TDR.COM> from "Paul Robinson" at Feb 6, 94 01:17:49 am
> Wendy Wein
> Clarence Thomas, systems administrator for "Redwood," the
>administrative computer, will be temporarily suspended from his job
>because he sent a 5,500 character religious message to between
>1,200 to 1,500 news groups across the world through the Internet.
What a henious crime!
> This act violated the system's purpose,
Ah, tell me, wise one. What, exactly, is the net's 'purpose?'
> giving Andrews University a bad reputation among the Internet users.
Hmm. Gee I thought it was something Thomas did.
> Over 1,200 complaints came over the Internet to the Andrews
> computer science department demanding justice.
Justice? JUSTICE? "Men don't want justice; they want Order" - Herman
Melville. And above all, the Net Police want to keep order, THEIR
view of order.
> Thomas will be suspended from his position for a week. His status
> will be reviewed at the end of the time period. During this week
> Thomas >ill not have available access to the network computers.
Have they taped his mouth shut too? I mean be careful, this guy was
expressing his views! That just can't be tolerated!
> Sometime between five and eight o'clock Monday evening,
On his own time, I note.
> These news groups deal with different individual topics. For
>example, if a news group is about cars, then only information about
>cars should be sent to that news group.
Wow! Who is fooling who?
> People who were not interested received this message, some
> more than once.
Gee, I have receieved religous solicitations more than once, all my
life. Maybe we have a new catagory of crime here.
> The message accumulated 5.5 kilobytes of disk space.
Intolerable! .0001 percent of the daily Netnews flow. How
burdensome!
> "If he sent his message through a news group which dealt with
>religious issues then everything would be fine," said Bidwell, "No
>one would have known."
This guy Bidwell really gets it, doesn't he? I mean, Thomas, DON'T
LET ANYBODY KNOW YOUR BELIEFS. THAT is correct behavior around here.
(of course if the subject is politics, government, abortion, gays
rights, cybersex, THAT is ok to sound off about.)
> There are no laws against Thomas' actions, yet he violated and
> broke some of the unwritten rules of society.
You mean that peculiar hybrid, the NET society.
> This act created poor reactions towards the university.
Now we are getting to the heart of the real problem - our 'image.'
> instead of creating joy in peoples' heart, he only created anger
and resentment.
Well, whaddya expect, from the net Philistines, who are the
majority?
> "He was doing the right thing in the wrong way," said Bidwell.
Wonder how Bidwell would do it. Martin Luther used paper, hammer,
and nails. He got in trouble too.
> This message has
> created bad public relations for the church at another's expense.
Geez, by THIS criteria I could indict half the institutions in
the US for the postings by their employees which I read at *my*
expense. And if I judged institutions by the personal netnews
postings of their employees I would really have some wierd views.
> The letters that were received included threats. They wanted
> Thomas fired, or else the Internet connections from the Andrews
> campus could be "taken." People are now writing and finding ways to
> contact President Lesher. Not only have strangers called, but also
> a large amount of Adventists claiming that something must be done
> to save the church's sacred reputation.
They just lost their reputation with me - and not for what they think.
Ah yes, and those net police. Self appointed judges of other peoples
speech - and convictions.
> "It was clearly, very definitely
> abuse," said Ray Paden, chair of the computer science department.
> "He broke the guidelines for the Internet and violated the net
> etiquette. The trust was violated."
I'll be damned. I didn't know that 'net etiquitte' was THAT sacred.
In which case I know about 15 million net sinners. Now somebody
got a copy of those 'guidelines' handy?
'Abuse' - the new buzz word of behavior. BC - behavior correctness.
---------------------
Ya know, I long ago told my computer literate friends that I
thought I knew what the newest global religion was - faith in the
Holy Chip.
That masses of converts, after their first CRT religous experience,
and as an act of pure faith, even though cpu's were supposed to be
the most logical of devices, ware ready to endow computers with the
supernatural belief that Silicon Wafers were going to save the world
- though there was not a shred of objective evidence that they
would. That worshipful attitudes toward the Coming of the
Information Age had all the earmarks of the mass religious movements
of history.
That there already were sects and heresies , converts, and prophets.
The Bishop of Apple. The Apostles of DOS. The mystics of FORTH. The
priesthood of 'C.' The Multi-Media Evangelicals. And of course, Bill
Gates, the Cardinal of Windows. (as an old Episcopalian, I always
liked the aescetism of the Church of Unix, myself. And I keep my
Concordances handy to unravel the mysteries of the meaning of
silicon life)
And there are rituals and incantations, T-Shirt vestments and annual
pilgrimages, local os-bible studies, and whole Codes of Behavior
that the high priests hand down. And Church-States emerging with the
holy writ of Clipper, Yep, it looks like it is coming true.
And sure enough, The 'Net' has become the counterpart to the Holy
Roman Empire. With its legions of believers, and crusaders,
Inquisitions, excommunications, and burnings of heretics, like poor
Thomas. Who is already a minor martyr.
Yep, its back to the future for sure. In case anyone didn't notice,
Cyberspace has evolved right into the Middle Ages!
Wonder how long it will take to gain electronic freedom of religio--
er, speech.
