Dear Colleagues: 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
Christopher, Janet Abbate notes some sf in early Internet development in Inventing the Internet ( http://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Internet-Inside-Technology-Abbate/dp/0262511150/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1331192341&sr=8-4 ) and she and some other authors on this list here go into some detail in Science Fiction and Computing ( http://www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Computing-Interlinked-ebook/dp/B006J4J39A/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331192422&sr=1-1 ) David On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 8:48 PM, Christopher S. Leslie <cleslie@poly.edu>wrote:
Dear Colleagues:
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
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-- David L. Ferro, PhD, Dean, College of Applied Science and Technology, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah
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