As per Relevance of the word september, we have this rfc below:
Network Working Group V.
Request for Comments: 1607 Internet
Category: Informational 1 April 1994
A VIEW FROM THE 21ST
Status of this
This memo provides information for the Internet community. This
does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution
this memo is unlimited
A NOTE TO THE
The letters below were discovered in September 1993 in a
time-capsule apparently sent from 2023. The author of this
cannot vouch for the accuracy of the letter contents, but
and radiation analysis are consistent with origin later than 2020.
is not known what, if any, effect will arise if readers take
based on the future history contained in these documents. I
you will be particularly careful with our collective futures
THE
To: "Jonathan Bradel"
CC: "Therese Troisema"
From: "David Kenter"
Date: September 8, 2023 08:47.01
Subject: Hello from the Exobiology Lab
Hi Jonathan
I just wanted to let you know that I have settled in my
offices at the Exobiology Lab at the Interplanetary
Exploration Agency's base here on Mars. The trip out
uneventful and did let me get through an awful lot
reading in preparation for my three year term here.
is an excellent library of material here at the lab
reasonable communications back home, thanks to the
satellites that were put up last year here. The
rates are only a few terabits per second, but this
usually adequate for the most part
We've been doing some simulation work to test
theories of bio-history on Mars and I have attached
output of one of the more interesting runs. The results
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RFC 1607 A View from the 21st Century 1 April 1994
best viewed with a model VR-95HR/OS headset with
peripheral glove adapter. I would recommend finding
outdoor location if you activate the olfactory
since some of the outputs are pretty rank! You'll
that atmospheric outgassing seriously interfered with
potential complex life form development
We tried a few runs to see what would happen if
atmospheric confinement/replenishment system had been
place, but the results are too speculative to be more
entertaining at this point. There has been some
discussion of terra-forming options, but the economics
still very unclear, as are the time-frames for
any useful results
I have also been trying out some new exercises to
from the effects of the long trip out. I've attached
sample neuroscan clip which will give you some feeling
the kinds of gymnastics that are possible in this
field. My timing is still pretty lousy, but I hope it
improve with practice
I'd appreciate it very much if you could track down
latest NanoConstructor ToolKit from MIT. I have need
some lab gear which isn't available here and which would
a lot easier to fabricate with the tool kit. The version
have is NTK-R5 (2020) and I know there has been a lot
since then
Therese
I wanted you to see the simulation runs, too. You may
able to coax better results from the EXAFLOP array at CERN
if you still have an account there. We're still
along with the 50 PFLOP system that Danny Hillis donated
the agency a few years back
The attached HD video clip shows the greenhouse
here to grow grapes from the cuttings that were brought
five years ago. We're still a long ways from '82
Beaucastel
Gotta get ready for a sampling trip to Olympus Mons,
will send this off for now
Warmest regards
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
To: "David Kenter"
CC: "Therese Troisema"
From: "Jonathan Bradel"
Date: September 10, 2023 12:30:14
Subject: Re: Hello from the Exobiology Lab
David
Many thanks for your note and all its news and
data! Melanie and I are glad to know you are settled
and back at work. We've been making heavy use of the
darkside reflector telescope and, thanks to the new
fiber links that were introduced last year, we have
effective controls from Luna City. We've been able to
some really interesting synthetic aperture observations
linking the results from the darkside array and the Earth
orbiting telescopes, giving us an effective diameter
about 200,000 miles. I can hardly wait to see what we
make of some of the most distant Quasars with this set-up
We had quite a scare last month when Melanie complained
a recurring vertigo. None of the usual treatments seemed
help so a molecular-level brain bioscan was done.
unexpectedly high level of localized neuro-
synthesis was discovered but has now been corrected
auto-gene therapy
As you requested, I have attached the
NanoConstructor ToolKit from MIT. This version
the Knowbot control subsystem which allows the
to be fully linked to the Internet for control,
sharing and inter-system communication. By the way,
Internet Society has negotiated a nice discount for nano
fab services if you need something more elaborate than
ISEA folks have available at XOB. I could put
NanoSystem on the Solex Mars/Luna run and have it to
pretty quickly
Keep in touch
Jon and
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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To: "David Kenter"
CC: "Jonathan Bradel"
CC: "Troisema"
From: "Therese Troisema"
Date: September 10, 2023 12:30:14
Subject: Re: Hello from the Exobiology Lab
Bon Jour, David
I am writing to you from the Hyatt Geosync where your
was forwarded to me from INRIA. Louis and I are
vacationing for two weeks. I have some time available
will set up a simulation run on my EXAFLOP account.
have the VR-95HR/OS headsets here for
purposes, but they will work fine for examining the
of the simulation
I have been taking time to do some research on
development of the Interplanetary Internet and have
some rather interesting results. I guess this counts as
kind of paleo-networking effort, since some of the
days reach back to the 1960s. It's hard to believe
anyone even knew what a computer network was back then
Did you know that the original work on Internet
intended for military network use? One would never guess
from the current state of affairs, but a lot of
original packet switching work on ARPANET was done
the sponsorship of something called the Advanced
Projects Agency of the US Department of Defense back
1968. During the 1970s, a number of packet networks
built by ARPA and others (including work by the
to INRIA, IRIA, which developed a packet network
CIGALE on which the CYCLADES network operating system
built). There was also work done by the French PTT on
experimental system called RCP that later became
commercial system called TRANSPAC. Some seminal work
done in the mid-late 1960s in England at the
Physical Laboratory on a single node switch that
served as the first local area network! It's very hard
believe that this all happened over 50 years ago
A radio-based network was developed in the same 1960s/
1970s time period called ALOHANET which featured use of
randomly-shared radio channel. This idea was later
on a coaxial cable at XEROX PARC and called Ethernet.
1978, the Internet research effort had produced 4
of a set of protocols called "TCP/IP" (Transmission
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RFC 1607 A View from the 21st Century 1 April 1994
Protocol/Internet Protocol"). These were used
conjunction with devices called gateways, back then,
which became known as "routers". The gateways
packet networks to each other. The combination of
and TCP/IP software was implemented on a lot of
operating systems, especially something called UNIX.
was enough confidence in the resulting implementations
all the computers on the ARPANET and any networks linked
the ARPANET by gateways were required to switch over to
TCP/IP at the beginning of 1983. For many historians, 1983
marks the start of global Internet growth although it
its origins in the research effort started at
University in 1973, ten years earlier
I am going to read more about this and, if you
interested, I can report on what happened after 1983.
I will leave any simulation results from the EXAFLOP
in the private access directory in the CERN
archive. It will be accessible using the JIT-ticket I
attached, protected with your public key
Au revoir, mon ami,
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RFC 1607 A View from the 21st Century 1 April 1994
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
To: "Troisema"
CC: "Jonathan Bradel"
CC: "Therese Troisema"
From: "David Kenter"
Date: September 10, 2023 17:26:35
Subject: Internet
Dear Therese
I am so glad you have had a chance to take a
vacation; you and Louis work too hard! I changed
subject line to reflect the new thread this
seems to be leading in. It sounds as if the whole
started pretty small. How did it ever get to the size it
now
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
To: "David Kenter"
CC: "Therese Troisema"
CC: "Troisema"
From: "Jonathan Bradel"
Date: September 11, 2023 09:45:26
Subject: Re: Internet
Hello everyone! I have been following the discussion
great interest. I seem to remember that there was an
to connect what people thought were "super computers"
in the mid-1980's and that had something to do with the
in which the system evolved. Therese, did your
tell you anything about that
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
To: "Jonathan Bradel"
CC: "David Kenter"
CC: "Troisema"
From: "Therese Troisema"
Date: September 12, 2023 16:05:02
Subject: Re: Internet
Jon
Yes, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) set up 5
super computer centers around the US and also provided
seed funding for what they called "intermediate level
packet networks which were, in turn, connected to
national backbone network they called "NSFNET."
intermediate level nets connected the user
networks (mostly in research labs and universities at
time) to the backbone to which the super computer
were linked. According to my notes, NSF planned to
funding for the various networking activities over time
the presumption that they could become self-sustaining
Many of the intermediate level networks sought to create
larger market by turning to industry, which NSF permitted
There was a rapid growth in the equipment market during
last half of the 1980s, for routers (the new name
gateways), work stations, network servers, and local
networks. The penetration of the equipment market led to
new market in commercial Internet services. Some of
intermediate networks became commercial services,
others that were created to meet a growing demand
Internet access
By mid-1993, the system had grown to include over 15,000
networks, world-wide, and over 2 million computers.
must have thought this was a pretty big system, back then
Actually, it was, at the time, the largest collection
networks and computers ever interconnected. Looking
from our perspective, though, this sounds like a
modest beginning, doesn't it? Nobody knew, at the time
just how many users there were, but the system was
annually and that attracted a lot of attention in
different quarters
There was an interesting report produced by the US
Academy of Science about something they
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RFC 1607 A View from the 21st Century 1 April 1994
"Collaboratories" which was intended to convey the
that people and computers could carry out various kinds
collaborative work if they had the right kinds of
to link their computer systems and the right kinds
applications to deal with distributed applications.
course, we take that sort of thing for granted now, but
was new and often complicated 30 years ago
I am going to try to find out how they dealt with
problem of explosive growth
Louis and I will be leaving shortly for a three-
excursion to the new vari-grav habitat but I will let
know what I find out about the 1990s period in
history when we get back
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
To: "Troisema"
CC: "David Kenter"
CC: "Therese Troisema"
From: "Jonathan Bradel"
Date: September 13, 2023 10:34:05
Subject: Re: Internet
Therese
I sent a few Knowbot programs out looking for
background and found an interesting archive at the
Historical Institute in Pacific Palisades, California
These folks have an incredible collection of old documents
some of them actually still on paper, dating as far back
1962! This stuff gets addicting after a while
Postel apparently edited a series of reports
"Request for Comments" or "RFC" for short. These seem to
one of the principal means by which the technology of
Internet has been documented, and also, as nearly as I
tell, a lot of its culture. The Institute also has
phenomenal archive of electronic mail going back to
1970 (do you believe it? Email from over 50 years ago!).
don't have time to set up a really good automatic
of the contents, but I did leave a couple of
running to find things related to growth, scaling,
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increased capacity of the Internet
It turns out that the technical committee called
Internet Engineering Task Force was very pre-occupied
the 1991-1994 period with the whole problem
accommodating exponential growth in the size of
Internet. They had a bunch of different options for re
placing the then-existing IP layer with something
could support a larger address space. There were a lot
arguments about how soon they would run out of
and a lot of uncertainty about how much functionality
add on while solving the primary growth problem. Some
thought the scaling problem was so critical that it
take priority while others thought there was still
time and that new functionality would help motivate
massive effort needed to replace the then-current version 4
IP
As it happens, they were able to achieve
objectives, as we now know. They found a way to
the space for identifying logical end-points in the
as well increasing the address space needed to
physical end-points. That gave them a hook on which to
the mobile, dynamic addressing capability that we now
on so heavily in the Internet. According to the notes
have seen, they were also experimenting with new kinds
applications that required different kinds of service
the usual "best efforts" they were able to obtain from
conventional router systems
I found an absolutely hilarious "packet video clip" in
of the archives. It's a black-and-white, 6 frame per
shot of some guy taking off his coat, shirt and tie at
of the engineering committee meetings. His T-shirt says "
on everything" which must have been some kind of slogan
Internet expansion back then. Right at the end, some
bearded guy comes up and stuffs some paper money in
other guy's waistband. Apparently, there are quite a
other archives of the early packet video squirreled away
the PHI. I can't believe how primitive all this
looks. I have attached a sample for you to enjoy.
didn't have TDV back then, so you can't move the point
view around the room or anything. You just have to
the figures move jerkily across the screen
You can dig into this stuff if you send a Knowbot
to concierge@phi.pacpal.ca.us. This Postel character
have never thrown anything away!!
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
To: "Jonathan Bradel"
CC: "David Kenter"
CC: "Troisema"
From: "Therese Troisema"
Date: September 15, 2023 07:55:45
Subject: Re: Internet
Jon
thanks for the pointer. I pulled up a lot of very
material from PHI. You're right, they did manage to solve
lot of problems at once with the new IP. Once they got
bugs out of the prototype implementations, it spread
quickly from the transit service companies outward
all the host computers in the system. I also
that they were doing research on primitive gigabit-per
second networks at that same general time. They had
relying on unbelievably slow transmission systems
100 megabits-per-second and below. Can you imagine how
it would take to send a typical 3DV image at those
speeds
According to the notes I found, a lot of the wide-
system was moved over to operate on top of something
called Asynchronous Transfer Mode Cell Switching or ATM
short. Towards the end of the decade, they managed to
end to end transfer rates on the order of a gigabyte
second which was fairly respectable, given the
they had at the time. Of course, the
business had been turned totally upside down in the
of getting to that point
It used to be the case that broadcast and cable television
telephone and publishing were different businesses. In
countries, television and telephone were
operated by the government or operated in the
sector with government regulation. That started
drastically as the 1990s unfolded, especially in the
States where telephone companies bought cable companies
publishers owned various communication companies and it
to be very hard to figure out just what kind of company
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was that should or could be regulated. There grew up
amazing number of competing ways to deliver information
digital form. The same company might offer a variety
information and communication services
With regard to the Internet, it was possible to reach
through mobile digital radio, satellite, conventional
line access (quaintly called "dial-up") using
Services Digital Networking, specially-designed modems
special data services on television cable, and new fiber
based services that eventually made it even
residential settings. All the bulletin board systems
connected to the Internet and surprised everyone,
themselves, when the linkage created a new kind
publishing environment in which authors took direct re
sponsibility for making their work accessible
Interestingly, this didn't do away either with the need
traditional publishers, who filter and evaluate
prior to publication, nor for a continuing interest
paper and CD-ROM. As display technology got better and
portable, though, paper became much more of a
item. Most documents were published on-line or on high
density digital storage media. The basic
process retained a heavy emphasis on editorial selection
but the mechanics shifted largely in the direction of
author - with help from experts in layout
accessibility. Of course, it helped to have a
reference numbering plan which allowed authors to
documents in permanent archives. References could be
to these from any other on-line context and the
retrieved readily, possiblyat some cost for copying rights
By the end of the decade, "multimedia" was no longer
buzz-word but a normal way of preparing and
information. One unexpected angle: multimedia had
thought to be confined to presentation in visual
audible forms for human consumption, but it turned out
including computers as senders and recipients of
messages allowed them to use the digital email medium as
enabling technology for deferred, inter-
interaction
Just based on what I have been reading, one of the
technical problems was finding good standards to
all these different modalities. Copyright questions,
had been thought to be what they called "show-stoppers,"
turned out to be susceptible to largely-established
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law. Abusing access to digital information was impeded
large degree by wrapping publications in software shields
but in the end, abuses were still possible and abusers
prosecuted
On the policy side, there was a strong need to
cryptography for authentication and for privacy. This was
big struggle for many governments, including ours here
France, where there are very strong views and laws on
subject, but ultimately, the need for commonality on
global basis outweighed many of the considerations
inhibited the use of this valuable technology
Well, that takes us up to about 20 years ago, which
seems a far cry from our current state of technology.
over a billion computers in the system and most of
populations of information-intensive countries
linked, some of the more technically-astute back at
turn of the millennium may have had some inkling of
was in store for the next two decades
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
To: "Therese Troisema"
CC: "Jonathan Bradel"
From: "David Kenter"
Date: September 17, 2023 06:43:13
Subject: Re: Internet
Therese and Jon
This is really fascinating! I found some more material
thanks to the Internet Society, which summarizes
technical developments over the last 20 years.
one of the key events was the development of all-
transmission, switching and computing in a cost-
way. For a long time, this technology involved
bulky equipment - some of the early 3DV clips from 2000-
2005 showed rooms full of gear required to steer
around. A very interesting combination of fiber optics
three-dimensional electro-optical integrated
collapsed a lot of this to sizes more like what we
accustomed to today. Using pico- and femto-
fabrication methods, it has been possible to build
compact, extremely high speed computing and
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devices
I guess those guys at Xerox PARC who imagined that
might be hundreds of millions of computers in the world
hundreds or even thousands of them for each person,
be pleased to see how clear their vision was. The
really bad thing, as I see it, is that those guys who
trying to figure out how to deal with Internet
really blew it when they picked a measly 64 bit
space. I hear we are running really tight again. I
why they didn't have enough sense just to allocate at
1024 bits to make sure we'd have enough room for
obvious applications we can see we want, now
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Final
The letters end here, so we are left to speculate about many of
loose ends not tied up in this informal exchange. Obviously,
current struggles ultimately will be resolved and a very different
information-intensive world will evolve from the present. There are
great many policy, technical and economic questions that remain to
answered to guide our progress towards the environment described
part in these messages. It will be an interesting two or
decades ahead
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RFC 1607 A View from the 21st Century 1 April 1994
Security
Security issues are not discussed in this memo
Author's
Vinton
President, Internet
12020 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 270
Reston, VA 22091
EMail: +1 703 648 9888
Fax: +1 703 648 9887
EMail: vcerf@isoc.
Vinton
Sr. VP Data
MCI Data Services
2100 Reston Parkway, Room 6001
Reston, VA 22091
Phone: +1 703 715 7432
Fax: +1 703 715 7436
EMail: vinton_cerf@mcimail.
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