@aetios @Graycot however without those before him he would not have developed the #WWW and some of its principles we still use. Without #PaulBaran (CommsNetworkMilitary), #LawrenceRoberts, #LeonardKleinrock, #DonaldDavies (DistributedNetwork), and especially #VintCert and #BonKahn (TCP/IP), along with #PaulMockapetris and #JonPoste (DNS)l . Without each of their contribution Tim Berners-Lee would not have created the WWW.

What you thought I just make #Music??

@thedarktangent Great images.

That first diagram of centralised / decentralised / distributed networks is straight out of Paul Baran's 1964 work detailing the concept of packet-switched networks. You can get the original publications direct from the RAND Corporation, along with all his RAND works:

https://www.rand.org/about/history/baran.html

Of his other and later works, many concerned issues of privacy, surveillance, and discrimination made possible though computerised systems, showing remarkable prescience:

https://www.rand.org/pubs/authors/b/baran_paul.html

The full set was made publicly available free of charge after an inquiry I'd made a few years ago.

#PaulBaran #RandCorp #PacketSwitchedNetworks #Privacy #Surveillance #Networking

Paul Baran and the Origins of the Internet

A looming concern was that neither the long-distance telephone plant, nor the basic military command and control network would survive a nuclear attack. Although most of the links would be undamaged, the centralized switching facilities would be destroyed by enemy weapons. Consequently, Baran conceived a system that had no centralized switches and could operate even if many of its links and switching nodes had been destroyed.

https://www.rand.org/about/history/baran.html

HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25544113

#PaulBaran #RAND #PacketSwitchedNetworks

@cypnk @jy4m That contains one of my favourite cautions of infotech monopolies:

Well, he who has access to information controls the game. This is very dangerous. I think both your country and mine have never trusted the government completely. We do so for good reason. Here we have a mechanism that could be abused. Here we have a mechanism that would allow the creation of a dictator. . .

I've yet to see an expression by anyone in Congress about this new type of danger. In fact, we see proposals for centralizing information, we see proposals for rushing ahead into new, more efficient computer information systems, and very little thought is being given to the dangers of the misuse of these systems. . . I ask a lot of people about privacy, why they valued it, and I was surprised by the number of people who said "Well, I don't do anything wrong. Why should I worry about privacy?" And then, on the other hand, I think there's a more wise group that says, 'Privacy is really the right to be wrong, then go on and live the rest of your life, without having it mark you forever.' I tend to think this latter view is the view we should hold.

-- Paul Baran, creator of packet-switched networks, 1966
https://vimeo.com/170324749

(At 30m50s min the clip.)

@pluralistic Ping

#PaulBaran #surveillance #monopoly #SurveillanceState #SurveillanceCapitalism

On authors who were publishing information technology panopticon concerns in the 1980s, or earlier

A quickie dump.

Paul Baran / RAND

• "On the Engineer's Responsibility in Protecting Privacy"

• "On the Future Computer Era: Modification of the American Character and the Role of the Engineer, or, A Little Caution in the Haste to Number"

• "The Coming Computer Utility -- Laissez-Faire, Licensing, or Regulation?"

• "Remarks on the Question of Privacy Raised by the Automation of Mental Health Records"

• "Some Caveats on the Contribution of Technology to Law Enforcement"

Largely written/published 1967--1969.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/authors/b/baran_paul.html

Willis Ware / RAND

Too numerous to list fully, 1960s --1990s. Highlights:

• "Security and Privacy in Computer Systems" (1967)

• "Computers in Society's Future" (1971)

• "Records, Computers and the Rights of Citizens" (1973

• "Privacy and Security Issues in Information Systems" (1976)

• "Information Systems, Security, and Privacy" (1983)

• "The new faces of privacy" (1993)

https://www.rand.org/pubs/authors/w/ware_willis_h.html

Misc

Shoshana Zuboff, In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power (1988) Notably reviewed in the Whole Earth Catalog's Signal: Communication Tools for the Information Age (1988).

https://www.worldcat.org/title/in-the-age-of-the-smart-machine-the-future-of-work-and-power/oclc/60966402 https://archive.org/details/inageofsmartmach00zubo/page/n7/mode/2up

"Danger to Civil Rights?", 80 Microcomputing (1982)

https://archive.org/stream/80_Microcomputing_Issue_26_1982-02_1001001_US#page/n295/mode/2up (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14329877)

"Computer-Based National Information Systems: Technology and Public Policy", NTIS (September 1981)

http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/ota/Ota_5/DATA/1981/8109.PDF

"23 to Study Computer ‘Threat’" (1970)

https://www.nytimes.com/1970/03/12/archives/23-to-study-computer-threat.html

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

"Privacy and Information Technology" bibliography is largely 1990--present, but contains some earlier references.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/it-privacy/#Bib

Similarly "Privacy"

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/privacy/

Credit Reporting / Legislation

US Privacy Act of 1974

https://www.justice.gov/opcl/privacy-act-1974

Invasion of Privacy Act 1971 - Queensland Government, Australia

https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/pdf/inforce/current/act-1971-050

Arthur R. Miller, The assault on privacy: computers, data banks, and dossiers

https://archive.org/details/assaultonprivacy00mill/page/n7/mode/2up

"The Computer, the Consumer and Privacy" (1984)

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/04/weekinreview/the-computer-the-consumer-and-privacy.html

Richard Boeth / Newsweek

The specific item I'd had in mind:

Richard Boeth, "Is Privacy Dead", Newsweek, July 27, 1970

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/11/is-privacy-dead.html%EF%BB%BF

Direct PDF: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/712228/1970-newsweek-coverstory-privacy.pdf

Based on an HN comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24851736

#privacy #surveillance #panopticon #PaulBaran #WillisWare #RAND #ShoshanaZuboff #RichardBoeth #CreditReporting