The New Paradigm
vol. I, Number Seven

"The Internet as a
New Paradigm Manifestation"*

by J. Harmon Grahn

Dear Friends,

We're all at least somewhat familiar with the Internet; but I doubt any of us have grasped its largest implications. I include myself in that rather sweeping statement; nevertheless here are some thoughts I'd like to share, which may in turn stimulate further thoughts in others.

By way of historical background on the genesis of the Internet: October 4, 1957 was a momentus day, and one that would have lasting impact upon the future development and use of both computers and telecommunications technology. That was the day the United States Defense Department had the hell scared out of them by the successful orbital launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik, the size of a basketball and weighing 184 lb. Then a month later the U.S.S.R. launched Sputnik II, the size of a Volkswagen and weighing half a ton. That was the year of Nevil Shute's apocalyptic novel, On the Beach. Dwight Eisenhower was President of the United States, and the previous year Soviet troops had marched into Hungary. That the Soviets had achieved the ability to put a payload into orbit was not welcome news to the powers in the Pentagon.

In January, 1958 President Eisenhower set up the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), a civillian-controlled branch of the Defense Department, charged with responsibility for all U.S. space programs and advanced research for strategic missile development. But by the end of the summer NASA had also been established, and most of ARPA's initial responsibilities were handed over either to the new Space Agency or returned to military control.

Meanwhile ARPA's mission was redefined, and the agency became the custodian of more "far out" projects. ARPA forged relationships with numerous university research departments and attracted the participation of some highly creative and innovative minds.

One of the overarching problems posed by Sputnik and the escalating East-West arms race was the survivability of command and control structures in the event of a nuclear exchange between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. In the early '60s military planners were aware that the existing communication channels essential to a coordinated response to a nuclear attack were very fragile. A few well-placed nuclear missile hits could shut down the command and control system in a moment, rendering an effective response impossible. Such a scenario would favor the side that was quickest on the draw; so the nuclear balance was seen as critically unstable.

Another matter which was the source of increasing frustration and duplication of effort was the fact that the various universities and institutions with which ARPA had forged relationships could not readily share their data and computer programs because their computer systems were all different and there was no standard by means of which they could communicate with one another.

Without going into details, over the years solutions to these problems came out of ARPA and the community of academic and research organizations affiliated with ARPA, in the form of a distributed telecommunications network, initially called ARPAnet.

A centralized communications network is the most easily disrupted, because it consists of a central switchboard connecting all subsidiary nodes in the network: no switchboard, no network. That is the major vulnerability of centralized control in any system.

A decentralized network is less vulnerable because it consists of subsidiary switchboards connecting the individual nodes.  Even with the central switchboard removed there is still some communication among the links on the subsidiary nodes. Centralized and decentralized networks may also be called hierarchical structures.

ARPAnet, however, was conceived as a distributed network in which no single node was vital to the effectiveness of the network as a whole.  No node was central, or of a higher value in relation to any other. Additionally, the telecommunication links between the nodes in the ARPAnet made use of a newly devised digital technology known as packet switching.

Packet switching consists of breaking each message down into uniform chunks, or packets, of a few bytes each, and labeling each packet with all the information needed to route it to its intended destination, where it can be reconstituted in proper sequence with all of the other packets making up the message. Like a shipment consigned to several trucks traveling over the highway system to a single destination, a message broken down into packets reaches its destination possibly by many different routes; but as long as the information needed to reconstruct the message at its destination rides with each packet, the whole process can be accomplished in moments with the aid of the computers at each node that are programmed to handle the disassembly, routing and reassembly of each message.

What emerged was an essentially bulletproof telecommunications network for sharing data between and among all the computer systems in the ARPAnet. Each node passing a message was apprised moment-to-moment of the conditions on the links to all other nodes to which it was connected, and was capable of deciding the most expeditious route over which to pass the next packet. Even if one or several nodes were obliterated in a nuclear exchange, messages could still travel freely among surviving nodes on the Network.

ARPA eventually got out of the network business and handed the main backbone in the United States over to the National Science Foundation. Meanwhile, the Net has grown to globe-girdling proportions. Today it is called the Internet because it is literally a network of networks, with whole new networks being added almost on a daily basis. And of course it is rapidly becoming evident now that this exploding global electronic network is destined to become the major conduit for commerce on the Planet during the coming few years.

In summary, the Internet has its roots in "old paradigm" thinking about how to wage and win a war in the Nuclear Age; yet it has been spontaneously put to peaceful use by people all over the world, who are discovering, just like we are, what a powerful tool it is for commerce and establishing lasting and profound human relationships across all traditional bariers of nationality, race, religion and language. Just as the systems of roads, highways, turnpikes, autobahns, railway lines, and the network of electric power lines, have proven themselves of vital importance to the people they serve all over the world, so now the Internet is rapidly emerging as a vital resource which will, like these earlier networks, be reliably maintained and improved by its users. For like roads and utility networks, the Internet has already become too valuable a tool for commerce for it to be dismantled to evade its unanticipated consequences. It was designed from its inception to be bulletproof, and even "A-bomb-proof;" but now its presence upon the Earth has created an entirely new game plan that was totally unanticipated, even as the vital components for the original ARPAnet were being put in place by people whose minds were preoccupied with War.

The Internet suddenly makes global communication possible for "the man in the street;" which may not sound very Earth-shaking, but it is. The necessary precondition for "old paradigm" "Us / Them" warfare systems to function properly is the widespread apprehension that the out-group, or "Them," are an essentially sub-human species who threaten to carry off our women-folk and devour our children unless "We" do something about it - like annihilate "Them." Wars are never waged against "fellow Human Beings," but only against "Heathens, "Infidels," "Huns," "Japs," "Gooks," "Thugs," etc. So long as "They" are mysterious and unknown it is an easy matter for the war-makers to foment the necessary slanders of their designated enemies and drum up the required popular support for their warlike enterprises. But the game changes its shape when "We" commence exchanging e-mail with "Them" on a massive and global scale; for intimate and emotional bonds are formed between "Us" and "Them" as an active network of mutual respect and high regard is woven around the Earth; which is utterly subversive of all warlike pursuits.

The conditions created by the presence of the Internet have never before existed in the expanse of human history; and they signal in practical, nuts and bolts technological terms the end of the "old paradigm" world. The Internet is an external manifestation of a profound internal illumination that has been taking place invisibly and spreading rapidly within multitudes of individuals for at least the past several decades. In the past these individuals have been largely isolated from one another, and so have been unable to apprehend, except in occasional glimpses, how widespread and common our private illuminations actually are. But now we can communicate at will with one another, in expanding numbers all over the Earth. "The fat is in the fire, the die is cast, the jig is up, the goose is cooked, and the cat is out of the bag!" [James Thurber]

As the process continues to accelerate and gather momentum, it will become increasingly difficult for "old paradigm" institutions and entrenched powers to stir up willing support for the wars and adversarial pursuits upon which their power depends. And as we verify the validity of our private intuitions by physically (electronically) communicating with one another and comparing notes, the resulting basis of mutual trust and cooperation are opening the doors to unlimited peace, prosperity and joyous human interaction throughout the world.

This, of course, is an expression of the vision of the Fortuna Alliance; but because it is much bigger than the Fortuna Alliance, or than any particular group of us, it cannot fail. It is "an idea whose time has come." It could not have been predicted or anticipated by any of the prophets of old, because even the most illuminated among them were "old paradigm" people and were unable to perceive or articulate a "new paradigm" vision. So all they could prophesy was "the end of the world." Well, Folks, welcome to "The End of the World!" Here we are. But of course, every "End" is contiguous with a new "Beginning," and "Life, the Universe and Everything" [Douglas Adams] just goes on and on and on....

The transition from "old paradigm" to "new" may be emotionally wrenching, and profoundly disorienting for many; but at bottom there is nothing to fear, for nothing that exists, including You and Me, can ever "non-exist." We are in the process of discovering in our midst the Cosmic Mind common to all and each one of us, by means of direct telecommunications, and by subtler, more profound, but less tangible psychic means as well. But the means of physical, "hard copy" communication among us is of decisive importance as a catalyst for the accelerating process of global illumination. Exciting times we're living in, eh?

Love & Light,

-- Harmon
J. Harmon Grahn

_____________________

* See also the follow-on essay, "The World Wide Web" in tnp vol. III #4.