Tags: publish

#include “stdio.h”

IV. Initial Experiments

The software for the ARPA Network exists partly in the IMPs and partly in the respective HOSTs.

During the summer of 1968, representatives from the initial four sites met several times to discuss the HOST software and initial experiments on the network.

( https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1.txt )

Nothing was public: host to host; everything private. And it took a few decades (1968 - 1995) before publishing this public information itself

Domain Name:IETF.ORG

Domain ID: D36473-LROR

Creation Date: 1995-03-11T05:00:00Z

And despite I met my first RFC around 1999 to partecipate the IPv6 experiments, this is the first time I’ve read it: 47 years later.

Publish != Public.

I’ve spend a lot of my time honestly trying to explain “host, socket, handshake, connection” (protocols), to “politicians, journalists, missionaries, adventurers, artists, militias”. In vain

The main problem I’ve met is that a computer (mobile phone included) is considered to be a commodity: a washing machine. Not an extension of the individual. Even the militaries - used to make an extension out of a knife and a rifle - don’t grant the same dignity to a computer. People get this after a personal disaster only: loss of memories, loss of the smartphone, getting SWATted, or rising of deep ethical dilemmas after driving killing drones

Whence is that knocking?

How is ’t with me when every noise appals me?

What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes.

Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood

Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather

The multitudinous seas incarnadine,

Making the green one red.

(Macbeth, Shakespeare)

Even today, most of the people don’t know they are publishing something. Don’t know they are publishing something every time they send a private message to their beloved just because it is unencrypted (plain text), or its encryption is intermediated (not end-to-end), or its end-to-end encryption is bugged by authorities, or their devices are ‘defective by design’, or there’s a lone wolf bothering. They publish private messages. And they even don’t ask themselves questions about the identity of the postman; the authority that certificates the integrity of their private messaging.

But many people guess, and hope, that by making a public message - example: advertising - they are speaking in public. Despite the fact that there are 2^32 different hosts: more hosts than people. It could take 20 years before I’ll be able to see their ads. The marketing industry went from pay-per-view (of the ad-banners on our website) to pay-per-click, to pay-per-buy (of a product in the shop advertised on our website); then google popped up, changing those passive practices into deep profiling; melting marketing with a wide variety of crimes. And it is still failing. And selling bullshit: the illusion to sell more.

And here we are: in 2015, the current legal frameworks built on commerce don’t take into consideration the reality of those tools - what is public? What is private? - and there are heaps of overlapping disciplines (ex: patents, trademarks, copyright, surveillance, privacy, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, espionage, amnesty, safe harbour, political asylum, dual use, maltagliati&frattaglie) abused everywhere for whatever reason

We must ‘penetrate the Internet’

“ISIS is using the Internet better than we are using the Internet, and it was our idea,”

( Donald Trump: We must ‘penetrate the Internet’ )

Or just bad translation

Hands off our Internet

No country should interfere in other countries internal affairs or support activities … that undermine other countries’ national security,

( Chinese President Xi Jinping: Hands off our Internet )

I don’t know anything about US and China but this is a better public representation of that meeting

Xi Wants Internet Cooperation

Amnesty International’s East Asia research director, Roseann Rife: “This is an all-out assault on Internet freedoms.”

Xi: “Cyberspace shouldn’t be a battlefield, there should be no double standards in safeguarding network security.”

( Xi Wants Internet Cooperation )

Because instead of talking about ‘sovereignty’ of the current leaders, talks about cooperation between the people; freedom.

The adoption of the internet technologies didn’t happen in sync everywhere; every society has its very own history, timings, chances, and needs. And every time a new mass joined - by cables and language - the connected one, the new comers were … ehm … enjoying the new toy, at all levels: government agencies, engineers, medias, kids, tourism and wedding agencies. Producing the freedom feeling, and battlefield feeling. Arts pupils got the first feeling, tech pupils got the second. Arts pupils embraced the law, tech pupils tried to change it.

And the

profiteering gluttons

embraced patents, copyrights, big data, etc.

Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ‘til the end of time!

But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money! (George Carlin)

Probably Donald Trump don’t have much confidence with numbers but his accountants must have. It would be a disgrace for all of us if we would have to pay a royalty for any time we use an egyptian number (1,2,3…) instead of a roman one (I, II, III…) because it was their idea. It could be even worse to go back to imperial numbers and measures!

In any case there’s no unique mapping between private/public and published/not-published. Unless you watch at the internet protocols in use: “host, socket, handshake, connection” (protocols); first.