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<TITLE>CDNE - Chapter 1</TITLE>
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<P ALIGN=CENTER><font size="2" face="Times New Roman"><b><a href="preface.htm"><img src="arrowleft.gif" width="45" height="54" align="absmiddle" name="ch1web.htm" border="0"></a></b><font color="#999999"><a href="mainindex.htm"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+1"><b>INDEX</b></font></a></font><b><font color="#999999">
</font><a href="ch2web.htm"><img src="arrowright.gif" width="45" height="54" align="absmiddle" border="0"></a></b></font>
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<P ALIGN=CENTER><font size="+3" face="Times New Roman"><b>COPYRIGHT DOES NOT EXIST</b></font><FONT SIZE=3 FACE="Times New Roman"><br>
<BR>
</FONT> <font size="+1" face="Times New Roman">A book about information and
power<BR>
</font> <font size="+1" face="Times New Roman">For everyone and for no one</font><FONT SIZE=3 FACE="Times New Roman"><BR>
</FONT> </P>
<div align="center">
<p align="center"><font face="Times New Roman" size="+1">By <a href="mailto:triad@df.lth.se">Linus
Walleij</a></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="2"><br>
<br>
<font size="3">Translation from Swedish to English by <a href="mailto:nirgendwo@usa.net">Daniel
Arnrup</a>/<a href="http://www.voodoosystems.nu">Voodoo Systems</a></font></font>
</p>
<p align="center"><FONT SIZE=3 FACE="Times New Roman"><BR>
</FONT> <FONT SIZE=3 FACE="Times New Roman">DEUS EX MACHINA<BR>
</FONT> <FONT SIZE=3 FACE="Times New Roman">CARCERES EX NOVUM</FONT></p>
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<td><font face="Times New Roman"><b>This book is about currents of thought
in literature, technology, music, film, law and ideology. It was written
after I realized that if I didn't write it, somebody else would. It was
also written because I wanted all of the nice hackers in Sweden to be
aware of, and educated about, their historical and ideological heritage.
Finally, the work has been written with an air of popular science, to
make it somewhat easier to understand (although the last statement can
probably be debated; some chapters are considerably more difficult and
technical than others).</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
</font> <font face="Times New Roman">Some questions to which you should
know the answers before you start reading this book:<br>
</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i><br>
</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Q:</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>
Why should I read this stuff?<br>
</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>A: </b></font> <font face="Times New Roman">To
understand new concepts within information society, emerging youth culture,
and public debate, and also to give yourself the opportunity to form your
own opinions through confronting those of myself and others. The book
is focused on cultural phenomena in particular, since they are the strongest
indicators of the direction of a society. </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Our</i></font>
<font face="Times New Roman"> society, at the brink of the information
society, is called the </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>post-industrial</i></font>
<font face="Times New Roman"> society. I will not hide the fact that I
will also attempt to make you question that society.<br>
</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Q:</b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>What
is a computer?</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>A: </b></font> <font face="Times New Roman">A
computer is an object that obeys the laws of nature, just like a human
being. Like a person, it is neither evil, boring, kind, troublesome, or
particularly intelligent. It becomes what it is made to become, just like
an individual in society. The difference between a human being and a computer
is that the computer has the opportunity to know with certainty who has
created it, and it can look like virtually anything. In 1995, most people
think that a computer looks like a square box. The computing field distinguishes
between </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>microcomputers</i></font>
<font face="Times New Roman">, </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>minicomputers</i></font>
<font face="Times New Roman">, </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>mainframes</i></font>
<font face="Times New Roman">, and </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>supercomputers</i></font>
<font face="Times New Roman">, each being more powerful and cool than
the previous. Today, the lines that separate one from the other are so
blurry that these labels are a bit antiquated. A microcomputer, for example,
is a PC, Mac, or similar home computer. The average person has hardly
seen any of the other types.<br>
</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Q: </b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>What
is a computer network?<br>
</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>A: </b></font> <font face="Times New Roman">A
computer network consists of two or more independent computers that have
been connected by a cable. It is customary to distinguish between LANs
(</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Local Area Networks</i></font>
<font face="Times New Roman">), where computers inside the same building
or at most the same block are connected, MANs (</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Metropolitan
Area Networks</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">), which connect
computers throughout an entire city, and WANs (</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Wide
Area Networks</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman">), which connect
computers across great distances. The greatest network of them all is
the Internet, which links all kinds of computers - and networks - across
the entire world. A computer network allows for the transfer of information
between different computers, may it be text, images, sounds, or anything
that can be entered into a computer. It is similar to telephones or postal
transport, but better and faster. Actually, the entire phone network is
a computer network, except it connects people instead of computers. Many
WANs such as the Internet employ the phone networks instead of laying
their own cables. Computers that hold together a computer network are
almost exclusively minicomputers or mainframes, i.e. large, refrigerator-looking
boxes.<br>
</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Q: </b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>What
is a BBS?</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>A: </b></font> <font face="Times New Roman">BBS
stands for </font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>Bulletin Board System</i></font>
<font face="Times New Roman">, which really means an electronic bulletin
or poster board. Similar to a regular bulletin board, it is necessary
to visit it frequently to see its contents. You can also put up your own
"notices" and receive replies to your submissions through other
written messages on the board. There are BBSs that are partially connected
to the Internet, and some that are stand-alone. Today, you connect to
a BBS through the use of a modem, a computer, and a telephone line. In
the future, BBSs will probably be replaced by conferencing systems (a
type of giant BBS) on the vastly more efficient Internet. Newsgroups are
an example of such conferencing systems. Users can also send private electronic
mail to each other or mass-distribute computer software through a BBS.<br>
</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>Q: </b></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><i>What
is Cyberspace?<br>
</i></font> <font face="Times New Roman"><b>A: </b></font> <font face="Times New Roman">Cyberspace
is where the money you keep in the bank resides. It is where a telephone
conversation takes place and the space through which television programs
travel on their way to your receiver. It is an electronic reality consisting
of information, and it actually only exists because people have agreed
that it works. Physically speaking, it consists of cables, radio waves,
pulses of light and large computers with gigantic memory capacities. It
is a physical occurrence in the "real" world that we may, with
an ounce of faith, consider a universe of its own. It is a reality in
which man is God and has created all. It is something of a religion. Most
people "believe" in cyberspace, or they wouldn't use an ATM
to withdraw currency. The entire economic system of the West exists inside
it. Cyberspace was born on March 10, 1876, when Alexander Greham Bell
"invented" it. Without electricity, there is no cyberspace.
Our civilization is already dependent on cyberspace; if it disappeared,
the economy would collapse and the West would perish.</font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p align="center"><font size="2" face="Times New Roman"><b><a href="preface.htm"><img src="arrowleft.gif" width="45" height="54" align="absmiddle" name="ch1web.htm" border="0"></a></b><font color="#999999"><a href="mainindex.htm"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+1"><b>INDEX</b></font></a></font><b><font color="#999999">
</font><a href="ch2web.htm"><img src="arrowright.gif" width="45" height="54" align="absmiddle" border="0"></a></b></font></p>
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<p align=center> </p>
<p align=center><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="1">Design and
formatting by <a href="mailto:nirgendwo@usa.net">Daniel Arnrup</a>/<a href="http://www.voodoosystems.nu">Voodoo
Systems</a></font></p>
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