Part 92 (1/2)
Scott nodded That was a fa students
”And, if you turn off the power, it stops functioning A tempo- rary starvation if you will It interacts with its environment; in this case with sensors and switches that react to the condi- tions at any particular moment And lastly, and most important- ly, it has purpose” Scott raised his eyebrows skeptically
”The program, the rules, those are its purpose It is coinciden- tally the saners had, but nonetheless it has purpose”
”That doesn't o or personality,” Scott said sly
”So what? Since when does plankton or sliht over Scott's comment
”OK,” Scott acquiesced ”I'm here to play Devil's Advocate, not make a continent of ene early on,” Spook leaned in over the table His seriousness caught Scott's attention ”You can disagree with us all you want, that's not a problem, most everyone does But, we do expect fairness, personal and profes- sional”
”Meaning?”
”Meaning,” the di cheeks radiated caument so early if you believe in it That's a chicken shi+t way out of taking a position Real kindergarten” The Spook finished off his Heineken in two gulps
Scott's tension eased realizing the Spook wanted the debate, the confrontation This week could be a lot ht
”At any rate, can you buy into that, that the traffic systeain
”I'll hold ment in abeyance, but for sake of discus- sion, let's continue,” acquiesced Scott
”Fair enough In 1947, I think that was the year, souy said that he doubted there would be world wide market for more than three computers”
Scott choked on his beer ”Three? Ha! What mental moron came up with that?”
”Watson Thomas Watson, founder of IBM,” the Spook said dead pan
”You're kidding”
”And what about Phil Estridge?”
”Who's that?”
”Another IBM'er,” said the Spook ”He was kind of a renegade, worked outside of the mainstream corporate IBM mold His bosses told hier co too et involved By the way, Corporate Headquarters thinks this project is a total waste of ainst it froave hienerations of machines And, he pulled it off damned shareatest events in their history yet they still found ways to earn tens of billions of dollars Today we have, oh, around a hundred million comput- ers in the world That's a shi+tload of co out twelve million more each year
”Then we tied over fifty ether We used local area networks, wide area networks, dedicated phone lines, gate ways, transmission backbones all in an effort to allow more and more computers to talk to each other With the phone company as the fabric of the interconnection of our comput- ers we have truly becohten the weave on the fabric of the Network With a ertips” The Spook raised his voice during his passionate ue
”Noe can use computers in our cars or boats and use cellular phone links to create absolute networkability In essence we have a new life form to deal with, the world wide infore,” objected Scott, hands in the air ”Arriving at the conclusion that a coiant leap of faith that I have trouble with”
”Not faith, just understanding,” the Spook said with sustained vigor ”We can compare networks to the veins and blood vessels in our bodies The heart puans feed off of it The veins serve as the thoroughfares for blood just as networks serve as highways for information However, the Network is not static, where a fixed road map describes its operation The Network is in a constant state of flux, in all likelihood never to repeat the saain
”So you admit,” accused Scott, ”that a network is just a conduit, one made of copper and silicon just as the vein in a conduit?”
”Yes, a smart conduit,” the Spook insisted ”Some conduits are much smarter than others The Network itself is a set of rules by which information is transmitted over a conductive material