Sender: Korac <•••@••.•••> On Sat, 16 Mar 1996, Cyber Rights wrote: > Sender: "David Heck" <David.Heck> > > I agree with your assesment....but after reading Vernor Vinge's > _A Fire Upon The Deep_, establishing an orbital, independent colony > with networking/satellite capabilities, that could function similarly > to the scenario described in Vinge's fictoin has been a favorite > reverie of late...escapist perhaps, but also passive-agressive. If > a coalition of 'independent' individuals could contribute enough to > design and launch such a facility (as on the order of Oceana), with > the crew constantly expanding the facility....ahhh the fantasy of it > all. Where shall we be moving on to? Alpha Centauri? (I'm speaking > seriously now). It is disappointing to see the passing of the > Internet as we know it....what could ever possibly take it's place? > > Mr. Moderator, please, this does sound fairly relevant...what SHALL > we move on to? Listmembers, comments please, if not to the list then > email me privately. > > David > •••@••.••• > ErieWeb, The Northcoast's Gateway to the World Wide Web! > http://www.erieweb.com/ > How about a packet radio network that uses the established frequencies more efficiently? Everyone with a shortwave hooked to a PC becomes a node and can pass along or examine packets. Admittedly it may come to a point where the FCC hunts down the transmitters, but if there are 1000000 of them all at relatively low power, thats a HUGE undertaking on an international scale. If they play that game, you could still operate using focused beam transmitters and bounce packets off of meteorite trails (one visible day or nite every 6-10 minutes or so and they last for up to 10 seconds at a time). A little slower, but not traceable. A few higher power focused beam transmitters could bounce signals off of the moon if you could tolerate a 3 second delay. There's always the legitimate method of getting enough money together as an international consortium and buying your own comm sat(s) to screw the big wire companies totally. I have a feeling that uncensorable satcasts would soon meet with "technical difficulties" by the first nation to put "debris" (i.e. antisat missile) in its way. I'd love to see radioboats floating off shore and supplying net services to anyone within small transmitter/reciever range, though in international waters it is amazing how fast it decays into might makes right when a government gets irate. "We didn't mean to bump into you with our cruiser, we were just boarding for a safety inspection/ drug check". Look at the airplanes shot down over international waters outside Cuba. Sure they dumped propaganda inside the country, but thats when you splash them. I guess certain ideas are so dangerous to the elite that it is worth the risk of violating international treaties to stop them. Last idea: loft large, disposable balloons with cheap relay transmitters that bob around at 100,000 feet (well above flight traffic of all but space shuttles and SR-71's). Space science guys do this often and it is well understood. They pop it, you float another. Unmolested they can stay up for months in the rarified air streams. Don't use metalized mylar and use the clear stuff, put as little metal up as possible (transmitters and antennas can be pretty small and still powerful). Use solar cells to maintain batteries as long as possible. This would cost so much to thwart that they would have to either end the game and declare martial law (kicking off the technocratic/surveillance police state early) or back off and allow free expression. I'd bet on the former, but hope for the latter. ******************************************************* "Those that give up essential liberty for a little security, deserve neither liberty nor security." - B.Franklin "When ID's are mandatory, its time to leave the planet." - Lazarus Long (a.k.a. R. Heinlein) ******************************************************* ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~ Posted by Andrew Oram - •••@••.••• - Moderator: CYBER-RIGHTS (CPSR) Cyber-Rights: http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/nii/cyber-rights/ ftp://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/nii/cyber-rights/Library/ CyberJournal: (WWW or FTP) --> ftp://ftp.iol.ie/users/rkmoore Materials may be reposted in their _entirety_ for non-commercial use. ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
