Witness to the Creation of the Net's First Node

We didn’t even have a camera or a tape recorder or a written record of that event. I mean, who noticed? Nobody did. Nineteen sixty-nine was quite a year. Man on the moon. Woodstock. Mets won the World Series. Charles Manson starts killing these people here in Los Angeles. And the Internet was born. Well, the first four everybody knew about. Nobody knew about the Internet.

Leonard Kleinrock in How the Web Was Won, Keenan Mayo and Peter Newcomb's story in Vanity Fair.

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Bloggers' Reign of Terror

"In normal times, such men become college professors, or book reviewers or bloggers."

- Adam Gopnik on Robespierre in the New Yorker

Bot blog parasitism

Some bot swallowed my "Zoning for morals" post (itself just quoting the AP) to sell drugs. Or for who knows what really. Weird.

Thanks...

to whoever nominated Murky Thoughts for wider recognition! That's swell. I have a feeling this is more a case of kickback for friendly or amusing comments elsewhere than from engaging anybody here (where are the comments?), but it's nice in any event.

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Not that you should bother reading them, but here are the other nominees, whose links I'll post as my contribution to the meme that's making us all recognized by the great Law of Linkage, which powers Google, Technorati and the fame-makers. Hah! You thought as meek! You thought us unrecognized! World Wide Web, prepare to quake beneath the awesome weight of our notedness!

1115, 2 Political Junkies, 3 Quarks Daily, The Abstract Factory, Acephalous, Adventures of the Smart Patrol, Adventus, Agiprop, akou, All Spin Zone, Alternate Brain, American Leftist, The American Sector, Angry Bear, Angry Old Broad, Ang's Weird Ideas, Anne Zook, Anne's Anti-Quackery & Science Blog, Apostropher, Archy, Arms and Influence, Arms Control Wonk, Arse Poetica, Axis of Evel Knievel, Bag News Notes, Barely Legal, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Bark/Bite, Bartcop, BattlePanda, Beautiful Horizons, Bilerico, Bill's Big Diamond Blog, Bionic Octopus, Birmingham Blues, Black Prof, Black Feminism, Blah3, Blanton's and Ashton's, Blog Them Out of the Stone Age, Blue Girl in a Red State, Blue Meme, The Blue Republic, Blondesense, Bootstrap Analysis, Bouphonia, Brilliant at Breakfast, Brother Kenya's Paradigm, By Neddie Jingo!, Byzantium's Shores, Capitalist Pig vs. Socialist Swine, The Cassandra Pages, Circle Jerk at the Square Dance, Coalition for Darfur, Coeruleus The Cognoscenti, Colorado Luis, Comments From Left Field, Common Sense, Conservative Truths, Contrary Brin, The Countess, Creek Running North, CT Blue, Curly Tales of War Pigs, Culture of Life News, Dadahead, Daily Dissent, The Daily Howler, The Dark Wraith Forums, David E's Fablog, Decorabilia, The Defeatists, Deltoid, Democratic Veteran, Demagogue, Den of Iniquity, Dependable Renegade, Dictionopolis In Digitopolis, The Disgruntled Chemist, Doctor Biobrain, Dodecahedron, Dohiyi Mir, Donkey O.D., DovBear, Driftglass, Dynamics of Cats, Easter Lemming Liberal News Digest, Eccentric Star, Echidne of the Snakes, Effect Measure, Elaine Riggs, Electronic Darwinism, Elementropy, Enemy of the State, ePluribus Media, Ethel, the Early-Warning Frog, Everything Between, Expostulation, Facing South, Factesque, Faithful Progressive, The Fat Lady Sings, Five Wells, Flogging the Simian, Frogs and Ravens, From the Rooftops, The Galloping Beaver, The Garlic: All The Cloves Fit To Peel, Geeky Mom, The Green Knight, Grumpy Old Man, Half Changed World, The Happy Feminist, Happy Furry Puppy Story Time, Hoffmania!, I Blame the Patriarchy, I Cite, Iddybud, Idyllopus, Is That Legal, It's Morning Somewhere, Journalists Against Bush's B.S. (JABBS), Jesse's Blog, Just A Bump on the Beltway, Keat's Telescope, The Kentucky Democrat, kid oakland, King of Zembla, Lance Mannion, Laughing Wild, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Lean Left, The Left Coaster, Left I on the News, Legal Fiction, Legally Blonde , Lenin's Tomb, Liberal Avenger, Liberal Street Fighter, Liberal Truths, Liberalism without Cynicism, Liberty Street USA, Limbo, Limited, Inc., Linkmeister, Little Wild Bouquet, Living the Scientific Life, Loaded Mouth, Long Sunday, Looking for Someone to Lie to Me, Low on the Hog, The Low Rent Rat, Mad Kane's Notables, Mahablog, Making conservatives cringe since 1977, Malkin(s)Watch, Mark LeVine, Martini Republic, Media Girl, Meat-Eating Leftist, Merlot Democrats, Metacomments, The Moderate Voice, The Moquol, MoxieGrrrl, Murky Thoughts, Mykeru, My Left Wing, My Very Brain, Naked Under My Lab Coat, Needlenose, Neil Shakespeare, News Corpse, Newshog, Newsrack, The Next Hurrah, Night Bird's Fountain, Nitpicker, No Blood for Hubris, No Capital, No More Apples, No More Mister Nice Blog, No More Mr. Nice Guy, Norwegianity, Nothing New Under the Sun, Nur al-Cubicle, One Woman Wrecking Crew, One Good Move, The Opinion Mill, Opinions You Should Have, Pacific Views, Patridiot Watch, Patriot Daily Blog: thinkings, Pam's House Blend, The People's Republic of Seabrook, Pinko Feminist Hellcat, Political Animals, Political Cortex, Politics in the Zeros, Peace Tree Farm, Past Peak, A Perfectly Cromulent Blog, Phronesisaical, Posthegemony, Prairie Weather, Preemptive Karma, Prometheus6, Progressive Blog Digest, Progressive Gold, The Progressive Trail, PSoTD, The Psychotic Patriot, Pudentilla's Perspective, Pulse, Random Thoughts, The Reaction, Red Grange Run, Redneck Mother, Red State Diaries, Red State Rabble, Republic of T, Resistance, Rhinocrisy, Riley Dog, Rising Hegemon, Road To Surfdom, Saint Nate's Blog, Science And Politics, Scriptoids, Scrutiny Hooligans, Seeing the Forest, Shining Light In Dark Corners, The Sideshow, Simian Brain, Simply Left Behind, Sister Scorpion, SistersTalk, Sisyphus Shrugged, Skimble, Spontaneous Arising, Stayin' Alive, Steven Bates, the Yellow Doggerel Democrat, Stygius, Street Prophets, Stone Bridge, Suburban Ecstasies, Sufficient Scruples, Syria Comment, The Talent Show, Talk To Action, The Tattered Coat, Taylor Marsh, That Colored Fella, Theology&Geometry, Thoughts from Kansas, Thoughts of an Average Woman, Tiny Cat Pants, Tom Watson, To The Audient Void, Total Information Awareness, Unbossed, Under the Same Sun, Upon Further Review, Veiled 4 Allah, The Viscount LaCarte, Xpatriated Texan, xymphora, Waveflux, We Move to Canada, Whatever It Is, I'm Against It, WhirledView, Why Are We Back In Iraq?, Winding Road In Urban Area, Wis[s]e Words, World War 4 Report, World Wide Webers, Yelladog, Yep, another Goddamned blog.

On credentials, blogging and high-brow appeal

Excerpting my own comments from an ongoing thread at Philosophy of Biology:

I changed my comment signature to "MT" from "Murky Thoughts" to be less instantly identifiable as "some unknown yahoo," but still my impression is academic bloggers mostly ignore my comments, even if I challenge a crucial element of some argument they've made. I think it's because I post no credentials on my blog, which I do partly to help me remain anonymous, partly on the principles a) that it's the thoughts that matter b) that anybody can claim to be anybody on the Web c) I don't want to intimidate, d) I don't want to be dismissed, e) I don't want academics and employers judging me some kind of wastrel for spending time online. I'll have to go read what Burgess-Jackson offers for reasons, but I suspect it's not so much the quality of the ideas but that the lack of deference that disappoints and discomforts him/her. A professor may happily lecture all the live long day to people without credentials and even to students he or she knows to be lucky to score better than a C, but only in a setting where everyone assumes generally what the professor says carries credence and what others say carries a burden of proof. Posted by: MT | December 24, 2005 at 02:21 PM

Here's a comment I tried to make at B-J's blog, but which wouldn't stick because I've only just applied there for the privilege to comment and haven't yet been authorized:

It's arbitrary to impose on commenters or even blog authors the demand for credentials that academic departments make in hiring. University lecturing happens under limits of space and time that don't exist in the blogosphere. Truth in self-representation seems like a perfectly fair request, but I don't think you've established misrepresentation by PoB, and certainly not willful misrepresentation. Academia doesn't own the word "philosophy." Posted by: MT | December 24, 2005 at 02:34 PM

On the other hand, if you are out surfing for a "high level of discourse" the Web does present a whopping signal to noise problem, so just as a scholar might vow to keep up with articles only in the "best" journal of his or her discipline, he or she could approach the Web with the same philosophy of optimization and time management in mind and be frustrated. There aren't as many sign posts or tried and true rules of thumb, so it's tempting to say "OK, I'm only going to read and comment on the stuff from Ivy League professors." Posted by: MT | December 24, 2005 at 02:21 PM

Do popular bloggers read their comments? Does anybody else?

Anybody else wonder what the value is in adding your two cents to a swelling thread of a couple dozen or more comments at a site of a frequent blogger who predictably elicits a gazillion comments per post? Do these people have the time, let alone the interest, to read every one of their comments? I barely have the patience to read opinions from bloggers I know and respect. Do I feel like reading what 70 unknown strangers had to say secondarily? The most I do typically is like a lazy pollster scan for a flavor of the popular response--the mood, the seeming intelligence of the replies. "Does everybody else think this guy's crap?" "Any of these comments worth reading?"

But more importantly: What about my comment? Is anybody going to read me? My instinct is that the two or three people who comment immediately after me almost certainly will, but the eyeballs of everybody else are going land on me, if they do, only at random. There's some probability per unit second that they'll hit me while they're scanning, and the average length of scan depends on the readership and the post in question.

What about the blog owner? Actually, I don't always imagine I'm addressing a comment to the blog owner when I enter deep into a thread. Often I imagine I'm addressing the world wide web,or the people who've commented above me, and/or the hypotheticals who will soon comment below.

Assuming you're not making your reply to a skin-headed hate monger, wouldn't it be nice to have an actual conversation though? With that author who sparked your thoughts? Or at least to know you registered your two cents? What's this world wide web for, after all?

You know, this looks like an excellent opportunity to take note of what a rare opportunity there exists here, gentle readers. Take some time to recreate in the wide open spaces of the Murky Thoughts comments section. Spread your prose out. Espouse a while. If it looks interesting I might just read it.

The Web as Heaven

I likened the Web once to a santarium, and I also called the blogosphere a prestige economy, but now reflecting on my footnote about the relationship between religion and the patent office, I realize that really what the online world really is like is Heaven. In the sanitarium, viscerality and the possibility of physical violence remains, the prospect of overcrowding limits how many people live there and who you're liable to meet, and everything is fleeting and temporal. Meanwhile the Web is safe, infinite and eternal. Even after I'm dead people might come here to interact with this expression of myself by posting a comment. Everybody alive now and who will ever live can come, JPEGs of your dog will be there, and there will never be any violence. Seeing how attracted people are to the idea of Heaven, it's no wonder we like the Web.

Note also how still it's marginally easier to squeeze a camel through the eye of a needle than to find an ivory tower inhabitant online. Don't know enough religion to assign a heavenly role to Google, who reunites you with the friends and loved ones of this world. Perhaps St. Peter?