Weekend Gedankenexperiment - The Kill Switch

Mon Feb 7 06:16:34 UTC 2011

On 02-05-11 8:29 PM, Fred Baker wrote:
>
> On Feb 5, 2011, at 6:11 PM, Dave CROCKER wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On 2/5/2011 6:43 AM, Fred Baker wrote:
>>> On Feb 4, 2011, at 9:49 PM, Hayden Katzenellenbogen wrote:
>>>> Not sure if it has been said already but wasn't one of the key
>>>> point for the creation of the internet to create and
>>>> infrastructure that would survive in the case of all out war
>>>> and massive destruction. (strategic nuclear strikes)
>>>
>>> Urban legend, although widely believed. Someone probably made the
>>> observation.
>>
>>
>> Maybe not quite an UL...
>>
>> <http://www.rand.org/about/history/baran.html>
>>
>> On the average, The Rand Corp is extremely careful about what it
>> publishes, yet here it is, repeating the claim.
>
> But Len Kleinrock adamantly disputes it.
>
>> Back in the '70s, I always heard "survive hostile battlefield
>> conditions" and never heard anyone talk about comms survival of a
>> nuclear event, but I wasn't in any interesting conversations, such
>> as in front of funding agencies...
>
> To survive an EMP, electronics needs some fancy circuitry. I've never
> worked with a bit of equipment that had it. It would therefore have
> to have been through path redundancy.

For more specifics from Paul Baran himself, you may read his interview 
with Stewart Brand. Lots of good stuff circa late 50s - early 60s.

	http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.03/baran_pr.html

one fun excerpt, re: asking the phone co to build a packet switch:

----
SB: How seriously did AT&T look at the proposal?

PB: The response was most interesting. The story I tell is of the time I 
went over to AT&T headquarters - one of many, many times - and there's a 
group of old graybeards. I start describing how this works. One stops me 
and says, "Wait a minute, son. Are you trying to tell us that you open 
the switch up in the middle of the conversation?" I say, "Yes." His 
eyeballs roll as he looks at his associates and shakes his head. We just 
weren't on the same wavelength.
----

Paul's memory is backed up by his meticulous records. I worked at Com21 
1997-2K and heard similar recounts from Paul over Com21 BBQ lunches at 
the company's Tasman site. I wished for a while he'd write a history but 
came to understand he's always been a doer not a historian.

Cheers,

  - Michael