I am more and more intrigued by a connection between science fiction and the early days of the ARPAnet. As you may know, one of the first group distribution lists that was not directly related to defense research was the mailing list SF-lovers, which was created in Sept. 1979 at MIT by Richard Brodie. When Usenet became available, a connection was established, and the travails of the list after that point are fairly well documented by Saul Jaffe and others.

Before the Usenet list, however, there is not so much information. I've been in contact with some researchers about this, but I am hoping that someone on the list might also remember the days of the sf-lovers list before Usenet. I've also heard that there were mailing groups on local computers and BBSs (bulletin board systems) before there were widely dispersed e-mail list, which if they were discussing science fiction, I would love to learn about.

If anyone has information to share, or can direct me to someone who does, I would greatly appreciate it. I am writing a book on science fiction and I think this list demonstrates an interesting synergy between science fiction and engineering.

Sincerely,

Chris Leslie

Christopher S. Leslie, Ph.D.

Instructor of Media and Technology Studies

Department of Technology, Culture and Society

Polytechnic Institute of New York University

6 MetroTech Center, RH 213h

Brooklyn, NY 11201

(718) 260-3130