Now I understand why Jerry Pournelle laughed when I explained to him exactly why I’d been kicked out of SFWA:
How Jerry Pournelle Got Kicked Off the ARPANET
Back in the old days, computer scientists funded by the Defense Advanced Projects Research Administration (DARPA) worried greatly about how their proto-internet, the Advanced Research Projects Administration Network (ARPANET) might appear as a frivolous gossip-fest to accountants, inspector generals, and legislators anxious to show that they were flint-eyed custodians of the public purse. Hence they strongly requested that people, especially people with guest accounts, not mention ARPANET in non-Department of Defense contexts.
And that was how in 1985 science-fiction writer Jerry Pournelle got himself kicked off the ARPANET:
Wed, 29 May 85 06:16:01 EST From: Leigh L. Klotz KLOTZ@MIT-MC.ARPA To: POURNE@MIT-MC.ARPA cc: USER-ACCOUNTS@MIT-MC.ARPA
You used the word “ARPANET” in your June Byte column three times. You even said
“I gave Alex the local ARPANET access number to record for the 1200-baud modem and inadvertently transposed two numbers.”
I don’t care if Alex IS a computer–you may soon find your accounts on MC decremented by gov’t order.
Thu, 30 May 85 03:57:38 EST From: Jerry E. Pournelle To: KLOTZ at MIT-MC.ARPA
thank you. if left to you I suppose I cewrtainly will find my accounts terminated. Your nice private message appreciated. seppuku follows.. maybe you ought to have me dumped off the net and be done with it? or must you work through someone else? J. E. Pournelle
Thu, 30 May 85 11:23:26 EST From: David Vinayak Wallace To: KLOTZ at MIT-MC.ARPA Subject: Surprise!
Date: Wed, 29 May 85 07:04:16 EST From: Leigh L. Klotz
Do you think I chastised jerry pournelle too much for talking about his use of the arpanet in byte?
Yes. It’s embarrassing to send a message to someone like that when a message in OFF POURNE would have done as well!
And now you’ve sent the message out I’ll have to go and find out why he had to mention it in the first place!
Thu, 30 May 85 18:44:42 EST From: Leigh L. Klotz KLOTZ@MIT-MC.ARPA To: POURNE@MIT-MC.ARPA cc: GUMBY@MIT-MC.ARPA
Date: Thu, 30 May 85 03:57:38 EST From: Jerry E. Pournelle To: KLOTZ at MIT-MC.ARPA
thank you. if left to you I suppose I cewrtainly will find my accounts terminated. Your nice private message appreciated. seppuku follows.. maybe you ought to have me dumped off the net and be done with it? or must you work through someone else? J. E. Pournelle
USER-A is the mailing list created explicitly for dealing with these sorts of issues. It is the appropriate forum for discussion. There are eight people on user-a. You probably know better than I do, but last I heard about 100,000 times as many people read BYTE. Thus, the issue of privacy is the last one you should raise.
I don’t particularly want to force you into ritual disembowelment; rather, I’m interested — and I’m not the only one — in why you find it necessary to flaunt your use of the arpanet. The more attention you (and other people) draw to non-blow-em-up use of the arpanet the more likely some Proxmire type is to start inquiring into its operations.
Fri, 31 May 85 01:11:16 EST From: Jerry E. Pournelle POURNE@MIT-MC.ARPA To: KLOTZ@MIT-MC.ARPA cc: GUMBY@MIT-MC.ARPA
I find this thoroughly distasteful. If you have some authority to order me off the net, do so. If not, leave me alone.
31 MAY 1985 0225 EST From: GSB at MIT-MC.ARPA (Glenn S. Burke) To: KLOTZ at MIT-MC.ARPA
i guess i haven’t been paying enough attention to realize that he knew there was any heckling going on at all. I’m almost tempted to let him take his marbles and floppy disks and go home.
Fri, 31 May 85 09:39 EDT From: Kent M Pitman To: CStacy at MIT-MC.ARPA cc: Klotz at MIT-MC.ARPA, KMP at SCRC-STONY-BROOK.ARPA, Gumby at MIT-MC.ARPA
Subject: Pourne Date: Fri, 31 May 85 01:11:16 EST From: Jerry E. Pournelle POURNE@MIT-MC.ARPA To: KLOTZ@MIT-MC.ARPA
I find this thoroughly distasteful. If you have some authority to order me off the net, do so. If not, leave me alone.
Personally, I’d just turn off his account. It’s not like it’s the first time, and he not only flaunts his use of our machines but stabs us in the back with grumblings about why he doesn’t like this or that program of ours when he gets a chance. (Am thinking particularly of an article he wrote which condemned Lisp for reasons amounting to little more than his ignorance, but which cited Teach-Lisp in a not-friendly light… The man has learned nothing from his presence on MC and sets a bad example of what people might potentially accomplish there. I’d rather recycle his account for some bright 12-yr-old…)
Date: Fri, 31 May 85 11:02:27 EST From: John G. Aspinall To: KLOTZ at MIT-MC.ARPA, GSB at MIT-MC.ARPA Subject: just think of it…
MIT Maximum Confusion PDP-10 MC ITS.1488. PWORD.2632. TTY 57 16. Lusers, Fair Share = 86%
:login pourne
That account has been temporarily turned off.
Reason: Think of it as evolution in action.
Any questions may be directed to USER-ACCOUNTS
I don’t know whether you guys have read Niven and Pournelle’s Oathof_Fealty_, but “Think of it as evolution in action.” is their thinly disguised rallying cry for do-it-yourself social Darwinism. It would be so, so sweet to shove it back in his face.
Isn’t it fascinating how the petty control freaks always make matters worse for themselves because they can’t bear the thought of not throwing their insignificant weight around? I mean, if you truly want to avoid drawing attention to yourself, perhaps you might want to consider not going out of your way to annoy one of the most important tech columnists in the world, no matter how irritating you might find his politics. It’s also informative to see how they think of an organization or a technology over which they have influence as somehow belonging to them.
That’s why you must always KEEP THE RABBITS OUT. They absolutely live for the bureaucracy and the thrill that bureaucratic control gives them. And once they have sufficient influence and know you’re a not-rabbit, they will be looking to kick you out at the earliest opportunity. As both the ARPANET and SFWA examples show, they will utilize any excuse, however flimsy, even when it isn’t an actual violation of any organizational rule.
In any event, neither lefty comp-sci nerds nor a stroke could keep Dr. Pournelle off the Internet for long.
Monday Dec. 25, I had a stroke. I think my head is all right, and I am recovering. Alas I used to be a touch typist and I am now learning to be a two finger typist. At present I am a one finger typist. Call it 1.1 finger, but after today’s therapy , maybe 1.2; I am learning. I just made the Spock sign.
Here is to hoping Jerry makes a full recovery in short order, and enjoy more years confusing and confounding the anklebiters.