From: ae547@yfn.ysu.edu (Ronda Hauben)
Subject: Re: Nobel Prize
Reply-To: ae547@yfn.ysu.edu (Ronda Hauben)
Organization: St. Elizabeth Hospital, Youngstown, OH
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 14:22:43 GMT


In a previous article, ts2a+@andrew.cmu.edu (Thomas Omar Smith) says:

>Excerpts from netnews.sci.econ: 7-Oct-92 Re: Nobel Prize Ronda
>Hauben@yfn.ysu.edu (2510)
>
>
>> In a previous article, wich1820@ww.tu-berlin.de (Thorsten Wichmann) says:
>
>> >Any suggestions who will or should win the Nobel prize for economics
>> this time?  
>> >What about Mancur Olson???
>> >
>> I can't say who will win it because those who make real breakthru's in 
>> economics will not even be considered.
>
>> But I have a suggestion of who SHOULD win the Nobel prize for economics
>
>> The world in general is in economic doldrums -except for one significant
>> and amazing breakthru - that is the significance of the telecommunications 
>> revolution that has created the BIGGEST MACHINE IN THE WORLD  - the 
>> connection of automation and of people -
>
>> This is an outstanding development which has been clarified in a recent
>> article that was posted on the net "Net Cultural Assumptions..."
>> by Gregory G. Woodbury. 
>>  
>> The essence of the article is that the development of the net has
>> been the hard work of many people who wanted to communicate and who
>> therefore did the hard work necessary to make such communication possible.
>
>> And the communication that is now possible and functioning is a very
>> important achievement.
>
>> The splendid achievement of USENET News and the many pioneers unsung
>> and unrewarded - who put hard time and energy into both the work to
>> make usenet possible via the programs needed and the working out of 
>> the theory of why it was something important.
>
>> Usenet has meant that people around the world have wanted to figure
>> out how to be connected with each other and so the nets like
>> the Internet, UUCP etc. have developed and spread.
>
>> (Not only do these pioneers deserve the economics prize but also
>> the peace prize).
>
>> This is an unnoted achievement of our times - and it was build on
>> restricting commercial usage and ecouraging education and research
>> activity and purposes.
>
>> This flies in the face of all the current dominant economic dogma
>> which proclaims commercial the be all and end all (and is thus
>> responsible for the bankrupting of whole countries and societies).
>
>> So there is a need for a legitimate Nobel Prize in economics
>> to be awarded  - but it is hard to believe that any such thing is
>> yet possible.
>
>> But it was good that you asked.
>
>> >Thorsten
>> >
>> >==============================================================================
>> =
>> >T. Wichmann, Dept. of Economics, Technical University of Berlin
>> >

>> Ronda
>> -- 
>> 

>> >
>So Ronda, you want to award the Nobel prize to.....
>
>THE UNITED STATES MILITARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
>Keep in mind that the original internet was a military project.  The
>military realized that having its academic, private sector and in house
>scientists able to communicate by computer would be beneficial to it, so
>it funded the original backbone system.  Later, the academic and private
>groups added on communications outside of their workplace and internet
>became what we know it as today.  But it was the military that first saw
>the need and found the funding and leadership to put the networks
>together.
>
>Have a nice day.
>

No, Tom I wasn't proposing that the award go to the U.S. Military.

As far as I know Usenet is not the product of the U.S. Military.

Usenet is the result of lots of hard work and important breakthroughs by
unsung pioneers in North American and around the world who are 
responsible for the telecommunications revolution.

The development of Usenet as far as I am aware began on telephone lines.


And I am proposing that because people wanted to participate in Usenet
there was an incentive to develop nets like the internet.

I am proposing that the prize belongs to the pioneers of Usenet.

             
(And it's interesting that though the grassroots movement of the 
Homebrew Club in Silicon Valley developed the personal computer,
IBM is most often given the credit by the mass media - similarly
it seems that there is now an effort to distort the achievement
of the grassroots movement who created usenet and give the credit
to the U.S. military. This is how the historical record is distorted
so that the role of the unsung pioneers is never acknowledged.)
  
              Ronda

               
-- 
Ronda Hauben                    email address:ae547@yfn.ysu.edu
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