In Defense of Technology:
    `Arte', Computers and the Wonderful World of Usenet News:
                    A Historical Perspective
                         (in two parts)
 
   "Another advantage of industry and of refinements in the
mechanical arts, is that ...Minds...being once aroused from their
lethargy, are put into fermentation, turn themselves on all sides
and carry improvements into every art and science."
  David Hume, "Of Refinements in the Arts"

   "Can we expect, that a government will be well modelled by a
people, who know not how to make a spinning-wheel, or to employ a
loom to advantage?"
  David Hume, "Of Refinements in the Arts"
 
                          INTRODUCTION
 
   During the past two decades there have been important 
technological breakthroughs. The personal computer, a science 
fiction dream for generations, is now available as a household 
appliance in a way that only the typewriter was just a few years 
ago. Also, a public conferencing network called Usenet News 
carried on telecommunications networks like the Internet, UUCP, 
and others, encourages public discussion and free exchange of 
ideas on a world wide scale.
 
   The social implications of these developments are rarely
discussed in the public arena. Instead the voices dominating any
public discussion usually are those of condemnation of the
computer and of criticism of technological change and
development. This article is an effort to begin serious discus-
sion of these technological advances. It is also an effort to
examine how such technological developments can increase the
social wealth of our society.
 
   Part 1 looks back to how philosophers and other serious
thinkers historically evaluated the role of such new technology
in increasing the social wealth of a society. It examines how
they established the principles needed to answer critics of
technological change and development.
(See 'Arte', page 12)
 
   Part 2 describes one of the most important 
technological achievements of the 20th century - Usenet News. 
Finally this article concludes that it is only by the active 
encouragement and participation in the computer and technological 
revolution that a better world can be won.
 
                             Part 1
      The Role of "Arte" in the Production of Social Wealth
 
   The question of whether technological development benefits
society is an important question. Recently there have been
numerous articles, books, journals, etc. that claim such devel-
opments are only harmful to society. (For references to some of
this literature see "Questioning Technology", The Whole Earth
Review, No. 73, Winter, 1991.) The social implications of new
technological developments like the computer and the
telecommunications networks it has made possible, should not be
dismissed as harmful developments as this literature implies.
Voices defending these developments as the significant social
advances they are, need to become part of the public debate. To
gain some perspective on the principles at stake in this
controversy, it is helpful to look back to early economic writers
and their studies about the value to a society of "arte" or what
modern writers would call the development of technology.
 
   Writing in the Great French Encyclopedia, Diderot (1713-1784)
pointed out the striking contradiction of modern society. Even
though the wealth of society is produced by those who do the work
of that society, they are the least respected and the study of
the "mechanical arts" which is necessary to make work most
productive is treated with disdain and disrespect. Diderot,
defining "Art" describes this contradiction. He writes: "Place on
one side of the balance the real benefits of the most exalted
sciences and the most honored `arts' and on the other side those
of the `mechanical arts', and you will find that the esteem
granted to both has not been distributed in the correct
proportion of these benefits; and that people praised much more
highly those men who were engaged in making us believe that we
were happy, than those men actually engaged in doing so. What odd
judgments we make! We demand that people be usefully employed and
we scorn useful men."(1)
 
   The 17th and 18th centuries were a period of profound social
and economic change. This period of history saw great
transformation in the ability of society to produce the
necessities and conveniences of life for a growing population.
Accompanying this social transformation was a growing concern
with the role that the mechanical arts (called "arte") play in
the production of social wealth on the part of those who tried to
apply the methods of science to economic questions.
 
   Such concern with the question of "arte" was not new.
Philosophers like Plato and Aristotle had examined this economic
category, considering it one of the important categories to be
studied. For Plato, as he explains in his dialogue "Protagoras,"
the mechanical arts were akin to a gift from the gods, the sole
advantage that humans had in their struggle for survival with the
rest of the animal kingdom. They were the essential element which
gave people the ability to survive in a hostile world.
 
   Plato tells the story of how the gods Prometheus and
Epimetheus were charged with populating the world with living
creatures. They created a variety of life, giving to each species
an advantage to help it to survive. But by the time they came to
create humans, they had exhausted the traits they could provide.
"Man alone," remarks Plato, "was naked and shoeless, and had
neither bed nor arms of defense." Plato then explains how
Prometheus, not knowing how else to be helpful to humans, "stole
the mechanical arts of Hephaestus and Athene, and fire with them
(they could neither have been acquired nor used without fire),
and gave them to man." Thus Plato, via this parable, shows how
only the mechanical arts, which differentiated humans from the
rest of the animal kingdom, have made human life sustainable.(2) 
 
   Aristotle demonstrates a similar high regard for "arte" which
is defined as "scientific knowledge and the corresponding skill
of how to produce something in accordance with that
knowledge."(3) In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle distinguishes
art from nature and explains that "Every art is concerned with
bringing something into existence and to think by art is to
investigate how to generate something which may or may not exist
and of which the [moving] principle is in the producer and not in
the thing produced."(4) He goes on to explain that arte is con-
cerned with things which do not have this [moving] or
regenerating principle in themselves. That arte is concerned with
the production of things that nature does not create on her own.
Hence arte requires the human creator and makes possible the
manifold creations which nature does not provide for on her own.
 
   Several British writers of the 17th and 18th centuries
continued the Greek tradition of respect for "arte" or "techne"
as the Greek word is transliterated. The mechanical arts were
necessary for the production of the food and clothes and shelter
needed to provide for a population that was moving from the land
under feudalism into the towns and cities that would characterize
the industrial revolution. The annual production of such food,
clothing, shelter and other necessities and conveniences of life
were considered social wealth by these writers. And the economic
category "arte" was seen as the means of facilitating the
production of this social wealth. Thus the economic category
"arte" became a pressing concern.
 
   Sir William Petty (1623-1687) who has been called "The Father
of Scientific Political Economy" isolated four economic
categories as being crucial for the production of social wealth.
They were labor, land (i.e. nature), arte and stock. Petty main-
tained that the two essential categories were labor and land, and
that labor was the active element and nature the passive element.
He wrote "Labor is the Father and active principle of wealth as
Lands are the Mother."(5) Though human beings could survive
without 'arte', Petty believed that 'arte' was an important
component of life, making it possible to produce more of the
goods and necessities of life with less labor. "Art," he explains
is "equal to the labor and skill of many in producing
commodities."(6)
 
   In order to increase the public wealth available to society,
Sir William Petty saw only two alternatives. "People must either
work harder," he wrote, "or introduce labor saving processes."
These labor saving processes, according to Petty, save the labor
of many hands and provide more riches for society. "One man by
art," Petty writes, "may do as much work as many without it." (7)
He gives several examples: "viz one Man with a Mill can grind as
much Corn as twenty can pound in a Mortar; one Printer can make
as many Copies, as a Hundred Men can write by hands; one Horse
can carry upon Wheels, as much as Five upon their Backs; and, in
a Boat, or upon ice, as Twenty...."(8) 
 
   For Petty, the choice facing society was to have "few hands"
"laboring harder" or "by introducing the Compendium and
Facilitations of Art" to have a few workers doing the work of
many.(9)

   He refers to the example of Holland which had the advantage of
being able to use Windmills instead of hand labor and thereby the
"advantage of the labor of many thousand Hands is saved, for as
much as a Mill made by one Man in half a year, will do as much
Labor as four Men for five years together."(10) Petty reasoned
that the use of arte to save human labor was a continuing benefit
to society. He demonstrated the long term social advantage gained
from arte over simple labor by an illustration comparing the
production by 'arte' with that of simple labor. "For if by such
Simple Labor," writes Petty, "I could dig and prepare for Seed a
hundred acres in a thousand days; suppose then, I spend a hundred
days in studying a more compendious way, and in contriving Tools
for the same purpose; but in all the hundred days dig nothing."
If he takes the remaining nine hundred days to dig two hundred
Acres of Ground, "then," Petty concludes, "I say, that the Art
which cost but one hundred days Invention is worth one Man's
labor forever; because the new Art, and one Man, performed as
much as two Men could have done without it."(11) 
 
   The social advantage of arte, according to Petty, is that a
large portion of the population is freed from having to produce
the goods needed by society and thus available for other
important work, especially for scientific pursuits. The remaining
people, Petty writes "may safely and without possible prejudice
to the Commonwealth, be employed in Arts and Exercises of
pleasure and ornament; the greatest whereof is the Improvement of
natural knowledge."(pg.12)
 
   When Petty identifies and describes "arte", his writing is a
part of a body of economic literature during the 17th and 18th
centuries which set out to scientifically define this economic
category. In his article "`Art' and `Ingenious Society'"
reprinted in his book Predecessors of Adam Smith" [1937] (New
York, 1960 reprint, Chapter XIII), E. A. J. Johnson gathers
several descriptions of "arte" and looks at what Petty and other
17th and 18th century economic commentators considered as the
role of "arte" and the effect it has had on the development of
society.
 
   David Hume (1711-1776), one of the economists Johnson
discusses, echoes Plato's emphasis on the importance of "arte" in
distinguishing human beings from other animals. "There is one
fundamental difference between man and other animals," Hume
wrote, "...Nature has `endowed the former with a sublime
celestial spirit, and having given him an affinity with superior
beings, she allows not such noble faculties to lie lethargic or
idle, but urges him by necessity to employ, on every emergence,
his utmost art and industry'." (Predecessors of Adam Smith,
pg. 264.)
 
   In this sense "Art" is, according to Johnson, "an ennobling
faculty, implanted by Nature, which separates man from the rest
of the zoological world by making greater production
possible."(Ibid.) Writers like Petty and Hume saw "arte" as the

ability to utilize technology to abridge labor, and thus as a
wondrous faculty peculiar to humans as part of the animal
kingdom.
 
   Other literary figures, like Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) in Plan
of the English Commerce and writers of economic tracts like The
Advantages of the East India Trade to England Consider'd (1707),
provide examples of the environmental and economic benefits which
accompany the increased use of tools and machines to abridge the
labor necessary for production. In Russia, Defoe explains, where
"Labor was not assisted by Art" there was "no other Way to cut
out a large Plank, but by felling a great Tree and then with a
multitude of Hands and Axes hew away all the Sides of the Timber,
till they reduced the middle to one large Plank." The Swedes or
Prussians, on the other hand, Defoe explains, "could cut three or
four, or more Planks of the like Size from one Tree by the Help
of Saws and Saw Mills. The Consequence" Defoe points out, is
"that the miserable Russian labored ten times as much as the
other (the Swedes and the Prussians -ed.) for the Same Money." 
(13) Not only does "arte" make it possible for more goods
to be produced by less labor, but "arte" also makes it possible
to produce more planks of lumber from each tree. When "arte" is
used, fewer trees need to be cut down. And high wages can be paid
to those workers using the most modern technology as they produce
more goods with less labor than workers who use backward produc-
tion techniques.
 
   The anonymous author of The Advantages of the East India Trade
to England Consider'd (1707) equates advanced technology with the
ability to produce goods more cheaply though the workers
producing them continue to earn higher wages. This writer
maintains, "Arts, and Mills, and Engines, which save the labor of
Hands, are ways of doing things with less labor, and consequently
with labor of less price, though the Wages of Men imploy'd to do
them shou'd not be abated." (pg.66) He also demonstrates the
beneficial catalyst such modern technology provides in encour-
aging new inventions and discoveries. He writes, "And thus the
East India Trade by procuring things with less, and consequently
cheaper labor, is a very likely way of forcing Men upon the
invention of Arts and Engines, by which other things may also be
done with less and cheaper labor, and therefore may abate the
price of Manufactures, tho' the Wages of Men shou'd not be
abated." (pg.67) By using "arte", this writer contends, all
aspects of the production process are improved. He writes that
'arte' "is no unlikely way to introduce ...more Order and
Regularity into our English Manufactures...." (pg.67)
 
   John Cary, in An Essay on the State of England in Relation to
its Trade (1695, reprint England, 1972), observes that because of
"arte" the price of many manufactures like glass bottles, silk
stockings, sugar, etc. went down even though the wages of the
workers weren't cut. "But then the question will be, how this is
done?" he asks, and he answers "It proceeds from the Ingenuity of
the Manufacturer, and the Improvements he makes in his ways of
working, thus the Refiner of Sugars goes thro' that operation in
a Month, which our Forefathers required four Months to effect."
And "the Distillers draw more Spirits, and in less time...than
those formerly did who taught them the Art." (pg.145-6) 
 
   Cary goes on to list other examples of how improvements in
arte have led to changes in production that have increased the
goods available to the population though they cost less labor and
so are cheaper. He writes: "The Glassmaker hath found a quicker
way of making it out of things which cost him little or nothing,
Silk Stockings are wove instead of knit; Tobacco is cut by
Engines instead of Knives; Books are printed instead of
written;...Lead is smelted by Wind-Furnaces, instead of blowing
with Bellows; all which save the labor of many Hands, so the
Wages of those employed need not be lessened." (pg.146)

   Cary observes that the price of goods has come down, even
though their desirability has improved. He writes, "The variety
of our Woollen Manufactures is so pretty, that Fashion makes a
thing worth both at Home and Abroad twice the Price it is sold
for.... Artificers by Tools and Laves fitted for different Uses
make such things as would puzzle a Stander by to set a price on
according to the worth of Men's Labor; the Plummer by new
Inventions casts a Tun of Shott for Ten Shillings, which an
indifferent Person could not guess worth less than
Fifty."(pg.146) After showing how a similar trend has occurred in
the Navigation trades, Cary concludes, "New Projections are every
day set on foot to render making our Manufactures easy, which are
made cheap...not by falling the Price of poor People's Labor."
 
   Also, he shows how these advances lead to a general
environment of improved methods of production. "Pits are
drained," Cary writes, "and Land made Healthy by Engines and
Aquaeducts instead of Hands; the Husbandman turns up his Soil
with the Sallow, not digs it with his Spade; Sowes his Grain, not
plants it; covers it with the Harrow, not with the Rake; brings
home his Harvest with Carts, not on Horseback; and many other
easy Methods are used both for improving of Land and raising its
Product, which are obvious to the Eyes of Men versed therein,
though do not come within the Compass of my present Thoughts."
(pg.147-148) And, he notes, these improvements not only lessen
the number of laborers needed to do the work, but also make
possible the payment of higher wages.

   According to these early British economists, Government has a
role to play to support the development of technology. "It should
therefore," writes Johnson, "be the duty of the state to increase
`art'." (Predecessors, pg.266)
 
   Once the sense of "arte" as the abridgement of labor via some
mechanical or scientific means is established, it is useful to
look at the effect "arte" has had on the life and health of
society.

   Several essays written by David Hume consider the role arte
plays in determining whether a society flourishes or decays, and
thus whether the society can produce the wealth needed to support
its people. Hume observes the correlation between a society's
support for the mechanical arts and its political and
intellectual achievements.(14)
 
   "The same age," writes Hume, "which produces great
philosophers and politicians, renowned generals and poets,
usually abounds with skillful weavers and ship-carpenters."
 
   Describing Hume's model of the role "arte" plays in the
evolution of social progress, Johnson writes:
 
   "The metamorphosis of society from a rude and simple state to
a refined and polished one was clear: first came the development
of `art' whereby the products of the earth were worked up; this
increased the productivity of a nation's land and its population,
thereby permitting the population to expand further; the existing
`art' and its cumulative progress increased the number of
occupations (together with the incomes derived therefrom);
lastly, higher incomes and higher levels of comfort `gave birth
to new desires'." (from Predecessors, pg.276-7)
 
   Hume maintains that a vibrant intellectual environment is the
product, not the cause of social support for mechanical invention
and the mastery of mechanical techniques. "By means of the
`arts'," he writes, "the minds of men, being once roused from
their lethargy, are put into fermentation, turn themselves on all
sides and carry improvements into every art and science." ("Of
Refinement in the Arts," in Writings on Economics, pg.22) Thus
every area of human thought is affected by the development of
"arte", every area becomes subject to scientific analysis. By
example, Hume shows how social support for technology and
mechanical invention will lead to more productive means of
farming as the farmer will then subject agriculture to analysis
and observation and, as Hume writes:
 
  "When a nation abounds in manufactures and mechanic arts, the   
  proprietors of land, as well as the farmers, study agriculture 
  as a science, and redouble their industry and attention.... By 
  this means, land furnishes a great deal more of the necessaries 
  of life...."
                     ("Of Commerce," in Writings on Economics," 
                     pg.11 [Johnson ref. pg.271])
 
  Thus attention to the mechanical world stimulates ferment in
all other intellectual areas. As Hume explains in his essay, "Of
Refinement in the Arts":
 
   "In times when industry and the arts flourish, men are kept in
   perpetual occupation, and enjoy, as their reward, the 
   occupation itself, as well as those pleasures which are the 
   fruit of their labor. The mind acquires new vigor; enlarges 
   its powers and faculties; and by an assiduity in honest 
   industry, both satisfies its natural appetites, and prevents 
   the growth of unnatural ones, which commonly spring up, when 
   nourished by ease and idleness."
                    (Writings on Economics, pg.21)

   Similarly, there is a negative effect when people are deprived
of the ability to interact with the mechanical arts: "Banish
those arts from society, you deprive men both of action and of
pleasure; and leaving nothing but indolence in their place, you
even destroy the relish of indolence, which never is
agreeable...." (Ibid., pg.21-22)
 
   Hume explains how the development of the liberal arts is
dependent upon the development and support for the mechanical
arts. He writes:
 
   "Another advantage of industry and of refinement in the
   mechanical arts, is, that they commonly produce some 
   refinements in the liberal (arts-ed)." 
                             (Ibid., pg.22)
  
   He sees the development of the mechanical arts as the primary
activity which leads to the development of the liberal arts.
However, to develop each, he explains, attention must be paid to
the development of the other as well: "Nor can one be carried to
perfection, without being accompanied, in some degree with the
other." (Ibid.)
 
  "The same age," he explains, "which produces great
philosophers and politicians, renowned generals and poets,
usually abounds with skillful weavers, and shipcarpenters. We
cannot reasonably expect," Hume observes, "that a piece of
woollen cloth will be brought to perfection in a nation, which is
ignorant of astronomy, or where ethics are neglected. The spirit
of the age affects all the arts....Profound ignorance," he
writes, "is totally banished, and men enjoy the privilege of
rational creatures, to think as well as to act, to cultivate the
pleasures of the mind as well as those of the body." (Ibid.)
 
   Not only does the fermentation stimulated by mechanical
activity and invention lead to a renaissance in intellectual
development, but it also affects sociability. Hume writes: "The
more these refined arts advance, the more sociable men become:
nor is it possible that, when enriched with science, and
possessed of a fund of conversation, they should be contented to
remain in solitude, or live with their fellow citizens in that
distant manner, which is peculiar to ignorant and barbarous
nations. They flock into cities; love to receive and communicate
knowledge; to show their wit or their breeding; their taste in
conversation or living, in clothes or furniture...." (Ibid.)
 
   This ferment leads to the development of social organizations,
Hume explains:
 
   "Particular clubs and societies are everywhere formed: Both
   sexes meet in an easy and sociable manner: and the tempers of
   men, as well as their behavior, refine apace. So that, beside 
   the improvements which they receive from knowledge and the 
   liberal arts, it is impossible but they must feel an increase 
   of humanity, from the very habit of conversing together and 
   contribute to each other's pleasure and entertainment."
                                  (Ibid., pg.22-23)
 
  He summarizes, "Thus industry, knowledge, and humanity, are
linked together by an indissoluble chain...." (Ibid., pg.23)
 
   People privately benefit from the development of technology
and industry; more importantly, a public benefit is achieved.
"But industry, knowledge, and humanity," Hume writes, "are not
advantageous in private life alone: They diffuse their beneficial
influence on the public, and render the government as great and
flourishing as they make individuals happy and generous. The
increase and consumption of all the commodities, which serve to
the ornament and pleasure of life, are advantageous to society;
because, at the same time that they multiply those innocent
gratifications to individuals, they are a kind of storehouse of
labor, which, in the exigencies of state, may be turned to public
service." (Ibid., pg.23-24)
 
   Not only did Hume show how attention to and support for the
mechanical arts leads to an increase in social wealth, he also
contends that the form of government, and the development of the
political structures of the society are dependent on the level of
development of the industry in that society. He writes:
 
   "Laws, order, police, discipline; these can never be carried
to any degree of perfection, before human reason has refined
itself by exercise, and by an application to the more vulgar
arts, at least of commerce and manufacture. Can we expect, that a
government will be well modelled by a people, who know not how to
make a spinning-wheel, or to employ a loom to advantage?" (Ibid.,
pg.24)
 
   Similarly, Hume connects bad government with ignorance in the
mechanical arts, "Not to mention that all ignorant ages are
infested with superstition, which throws the government off its
bias, and disturbs men in the pursuit of their interest and
happiness." (Ibid.)
 
   Furthermore, Hume relates the development of political liberty
to the development of technology. He writes, "The liberties of
England, so far from decaying since the improvements in the arts,
have never flourished so much as during that period." (Ibid.,
pg.27) 
 
   He finds a symbiotic relationship between the progress of the
mechanical arts [i.e. `arte'- ed] in a society and the
possibility of good government. In societies which encourage the
mechanical arts to develop, larger sections of the population
have the time and know how to fashion a more democratic and
responsive government. Where technological development is
discouraged, a greater part of the population has to spend all of
its time producing for subsistence and has no time to devote to
oversight of the government. Hume explains:

   "If we consider the matter in a proper light, we shall find,
   that a progress in the arts is rather favorable to liberty, 
   and has a natural tendency to preserve, if not produce a free
   government. In rude unpolished nations, where the arts are
   neglected, all labor is bestowed on the cultivation of the
   ground; and the whole society is divided into two classes,
   proprietors of land, and their vassals or tenants. The latter    
   are necessarily dependent and fitted for slavery and 
   subjection; especially where they possess no riches, and are 
   not valued for their knowledge in agriculture; as must always 
   be the case where the arts [i.e. mechanical arts - ed] are 
   neglected."
                          (Ibid., pg.28)
 
  He observes that in a land based society, tyranny is the norm:
 
   "The former naturally erect themselves into petty tyrants; and
   must either submit to an absolute master, for the sake of 
   peace and order; or if they will preserve their independence, 
   like the ancient barons, they must fall into feuds and 
   contests among themselves, and throw the whole society into 
   such confusion, as is perhaps worse than the most despotic 
   government."
                           (Ibid.)
             
   Not only was Hume a proponent of public support for
technological development, he also maintained that increasing the
wealth available to all strata of the population was beneficial
to industrial development. He observed that increasing the share
of the social wealth, and even of the luxury available to poorer
sections of society makes possible more democratic political
institutions. "But where luxury nourishes commerce and industry,"
he writes, "the peasants, by a proper cultivation of the land
become rich and independent; while the tradesmen and merchants
acquire a share of the property, and draw authority and
consideration to that middling rank of men, who are the best and
firmest basis of public liberty. These submit not to slavery,
like the peasants, from poverty and meanness of spirit; and
having no hopes of tyrannizing over others, like the barons, they
are not tempted for the sake of that gratification, to submit to
the tyranny of their sovereign. They covet equal laws, which may
secure their property, and preserve them from monarchial, as well
as aristocratical tyranny." (Ibid., pg.28-9)
 
   Thus he traces the development of the government in England
attributing changes to the level of technological development of
the nation's industry.
 
   Hume describes how the House of Commons in England evolved
from the growth and expansion of industry:
 
   "The lower house is the support of our popular government; and
   all the world acknowledges, that it owed its chief influence 
   and consideration to the increase of commerce, which threw 
   such a balance of property into the hands of the commons. How 
   inconsistent then is it to blame so violently a refinement in 
   the arts, (i.e. mechanical arts -ed.) and to represent it as 
   the bane of liberty and public spirit!"
                          (Ibid., pg.29)
 
   Hume's defense of technology against its detractors has a
familiar ring. His writings represent a criticism of those who
dismiss the benefits of the computer because of a supposed loss
of privacy or increase in the potential for government control
over the lives of its citizens. Hume's writings challenge these
efforts to blame the computer for such problems and instead they
point an arrow to the democratic achievements of the last part of
the 20th century that are the result of computer technology.
  
  One of the most exciting of these achievements is the
development of what is known as Usenet News, a worldwide computer
conferencing network that makes possible democratic and
uncensored debate and communication on thousands of subjects for
computer users around the world. Hume's discovery that "arte"
(i.e. the development and support of the mechanical arts) leads
to the possibility of a more democratic set of institutions and
then to the ability to preserve those institutions is being
demonstrated by some of the dramatic applications that have de-
veloped as a result of the widespread use of computer technology.
 
   Johnson's discussion of "arte", the writings of Plato,
Aristotle, Petty, Defoe, and others, and the essays David Hume
wrote on the question of "arte", provide a theoretical
foundation to understand the important advance represented by
Usenet News.
 
NOTES (Part 1)
 
1. "Art", in The Encyclopedia: Selections, edited and translated
by Stephen J. Gendzier, N.Y., 1967, pg.60. A modern example of
such arte is provided by Carl Malamud in Exploring the Internet
(N.J., 1992), pg.100. He writes: "The system takes raw timber and
figures out the most efficient way to saw up the log to produce
the most lumber. In an economy where 30 to 40 percent of GNP is
based on forestry, this system proved quite popular."
 
2. From "Protagoras", in the Works of Plato, vol I, The Franklin
Library, Penn, 1979, pg.81.
 
3. Aristotle's Selected Works, translated by Hippocrates G.
Apostle and Lloyd P. Gerson, 1986, pg.676.
 
4. Ibid., Nicomachean Ethics, 1140a 6-23.
 
5. "A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions", in The Economic
Writings of Sir William Petty, edited by Charles Hull, vol I,
pg.68.
 
6. "History of Trade", Petty Papers, vol I, London, 1927, pg.211.

7. "Political Arithmetick", The Economic Writings, vol. I,
pg.249.
 
8. Ibid., pg.249-250.
 
9. "Verbum Sapienti", The Economic Writings, vol I, pg.118.
 
10. "Political Arithmethic", The Economic Writings, vol I,
pg.256.
 
11. "The Political Anatomy of Ireland", The Economic Writings,
vol I, Works, pg.182.
 
12. "Political Arithmetick", The Economic Writings, pg.270 and
271.
 
13. A Plan of English Commerce, 1730, Augustus Kelley reprint
edition, N.Y., pg.36.
 
14. These essays are from Political Discourses, [Edinburgh,
1752]. Several of the essays have been reprinted in D. Hume,
Writings on Economics, (ed. E. Rotwein [1955] Madison, 1970
reprint).


                    In Defense of Technology:
    `Arte', Computers and the Wonderful World of Usenet News:
                    A Historical Perspective
                         (in two parts)
 
                      Part 2 - USENET NEWS
 
   Usenet News is a world wide public conferencing network that
makes it possible for computer users around the world to have
public discussions, raise questions or problems so they can get
help, or send e-mail (i.e. electronic mail) to each other in
short spans of time. One user explains that it is like a
newspaper where "everyone's letter to the editor is printed." (1)
Usenet News has also been described as a series of electronic
magazines. "These magazines," called `newsgroups,' are devoted to
particular topics, ranging from questions about UNIX, programming
languages, and computer systems to discussions of politics,
philosophy, science, and recreational activities."(2) Usenet News
has been compared to an electronic town meeting of the world or
to a series of electronic soap boxes. Others have observed that
"It's now as if everyone owns a printing press" or even better "a
publishing house." 
 
   Computer users with access to Usenet can read articles on a
broad range of topics. They can contribute their responses or
post articles of their own on any subject in an appropriate
newsgroup. Their submissions are then copied electronically to
computers around the world which are also part of the Usenet
network. Usenet News demonstrates what happens when people are
encouraged and allowed to develop computer technology.
 
   When it was first initiated in 1979, the Usenet logical
network was made possible as a result of the capabilities built
into the UNIX operating system (developed at Bell Labs) and its
networking capacity known as UUCP. (i.e. UNIX to UNIX CoPy)
Today, however, this netnews network involves most of the great
variety of computers and operating systems in use. This network
traffic is carried on a variety of physical networks including
the Internet and UUCP.
 
   Usenet News is estimated to involve 3,000,000 users world wide
and the number of users is continually growing. It was initiated
in 1979 by Tom Truscott and James Ellis, graduate students at
Duke University, and Steve Bellovin, a graduate student at the
neighboring University of North Carolina. According to accounts
of the early days that have been circulated on the Net (as Usenet
News is sometimes called), Truscott and Ellis thought of hooking
remote computers together, using homebrew autodial 300 baud
modems connected to telephones. They envisioned creating a poor
man's ARPANET (i.e. The U.S. Department of Defense Network, only
available to those involved with D.O.D. research contracts).(3)
An informal conference was convened by Truscott, Ellis and
Bellovin, where interested people hashed out the basic principles
and needs, and then Bellovin went on to write the first version
of Usenet News in a period of about two weeks. The program was
installed and operating at the first 2 sites: "unc" (i.e. the
University of North Carolina's Computer Science Department) and
"duke" (Duke University's Computer Science Department). Another
site "phs" (the Duke University Medical School's Department of
Physiology) was added early in 1980. They got the software to
work at these three "original sites". A rewritten version of
NetNews software by Stephen Daniel, called "A" version, was later
placed on the conference tape at the Academic UNIX users
association USENIX, at a meeting in 1980.(4)
 
   The early software included the capacity to automatically
swap, via telephone and modem, updated message files among remote
machines. The initial software developed in 1979 was written in
the script language built into the UNIX shell. "The original
shell script implementation involved simply checking the time
stamps on files and sending the files that had changed since the
last check to some other machine," explains Gregory G. Woodbury
in his account of these early days.
 
   He writes, "Under the conditions of the academic UNIX licenses
in those days, the software was placed in the `public domain' and
it was the most popular program from that (USENIX) Conference
Tape. I do not recall that anyone was quite expecting the
explosion that followed."(5)
 
   The original assumption of the programmers of Usenet was that
it would provide a way for a local group of machines to share
news. "The model," Woodbury writes, "was that a campus of a
university would have a news network, and it might be shared with
another university that was logically and physically close to it,
but spatially inconvenient for folks to get together physically,
and that netnews would allow them to share information in a
timely manner."(6)
 
   What developed, though, took everybody by surprise. Woodbury
recounts, "When the direction of evolution took an unexpected
turn, and a continental network emerged, spanning the continent
from California to North Carolina, and Toronto to San Diego, it
was sort of a shock to realize what had happened."(7)
 
   This phenomenal and surprising growth is explained by two
elements. The most important Woodbury emphasizes is "that people
wanted to communicate and would cooperate in effecting that
communication."(8)
 
   The second important element, according to Woodbury, is that
the early Usenet News program was created under the conditions of
the academic UNIX license which then provided that the program be
put into the public domain. And since everyone involved at the
time was working in an academic environment (including Bell Labs
which Woodbury notes was "academic really") where information was
shared, the emphasis was on communication, not on copyright or
other proprietary rights. "Everyone wanted to be on the Net," he
notes, "and it was clear they were cooperating in doing so."(9)

   The phenomenal growth of Usenet News during the early 1980's
was an acknowledgment that it was a superior means of dealing
with the growing mailing lists on various subjects that had
developed on the early ARPAnet network, created under the
auspices of the U.S. Dept. of Defense for its research purposes.
The original script files had been rewritten in C by Steve
Bellovin for use at "unc" and "duke", according to Gene
Spafford's history of the period. Stephen Daniel, Spafford
explains, "did another implementation in C for public
distribution."(10) After Tom Truscott made modifications in this
program, the software became known as the A News release of the
Usenet News program.
 
   "Under the strain of being an international network," Woodbury
explains, "with several new machines being added daily, certain
limitations in the basic assumptions made themselves painfully
obvious." The continuing expansion led to a rewriting of the
software in 1981 by University of California at Berkeley graduate
student Mark Horton and high school student Matt Glickman. This
version was released to the public as B News, version 2.1 in
1982. Then in 1985, the still ever expanding nature of Usenet
News led Henry Spencer and Geoff Collyer at the University of
Toronto to set to work on what is now known as C News which
they released in 1989. Spencer and Collyer paid very careful
attention to the performance aspects of C News. The result is
that it has been able to handle the phenomenal expansion of
Usenet News which continues today.(11)
 
   The administration and coordination of this world wide network
depends to a great extent on the cooperation and diligent work of
the system administrators at the participating sites. In the
early development of Usenet News some of these administrators
knew each other and worked together to establish a series of
general procedures for processes like adding newsgroups. Known as
the "backbone cabal", this group worked together to hash out ways
to deal with problems that threatened the voluntary, cooperative
nature of the net.
 
   This informal structure would contact new site administrators
who joined the Net. The character of the Net as a voluntary
association of people who posted because they wanted to
communicate was conveyed. And the fact that posts were entered
into the "public domain" was established as an essential
principle of the Net.(12)
 
   Usenet News is now made up of thousands of newsgroups
organized around different topics. The number of groups is
constantly growing as there is a democratic procedure established
to provide for new groups. If 100 more users vote for a new group
than vote against it, the group can be started.(13) This
procedure governs new groups in what is known as the "Seven
Sisters" hierarchy which was the collection of the seven
newsgroups at one point known as Usenet News. Some people have
defined Usenet News as those sites receiving the seven main
groups; comp, misc, news, rec, sci, soc, and talk newsgroups, and
the group news.announce.important. Others have defined Usenet
News as those sites that receive at least one of the newsgroups
that appears on the list of Usenet News newsgroups. There is also
an alternate hierarchy which includes alt, gnu, and other groups.
A more informal procedure is provided for creating an alt group.
The guidelines provide for posting a proposal to the alt.config
newsgroup and then the newsgroup can be set up as an alt group
when a new newsgroup control message is posted to the control
newsgroup.
 
   The phenomenal growth and richness of Usenet News demonstrates
the important role "arte" still plays in the development of
social achievements. Many of the people using and contributing to
Usenet News are people who have respect for and work with
computer technology. Many of these people have a need for Usenet
News to get help with problems they encounter in dealing with
computer technology. One of the early functions of Usenet News
was to help identify bugs in new technology and to identify and
propagate ways to deal with the problems.(14) 
 
   My experience using Usenet News has been inspiring. I was
interested in discussions involving economics and the history of
economic thought. When I first got onto Usenet News I couldn't
figure out where such discussions would take place. I managed to
get access to the misc.books.technical newsgroup. I didn't know
what the other newsgroups were or how to find out. Not knowing
how to proceed I entered the following post:
   From: au329@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ronda Hauben)
   Newsgroups: misc.books.technical
   Date: 10 Jan 92 07:48:58 GMT
   Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, 
                 Ohio, (USA)
   Nntp-Posting-Host: cwns9.ins.cwru.edu
 
   I am interested in discussing the history of economics -- i.e.
mercantilists, physiocrats, adam smith, ricardo, marx, marshall,
keynes etc. With the world in such a turmoil it would seem that
the science of economics needs to be reinvigorated.
   Is there anyplace on Usenet News where this kind of discussion
is taking place? If not is there anyone else interested in
starting a conference .economics and how would I go about doing
this. This is my first time on Usenet News.
      Ronda
      au329@cleveland.freenet.edu
 
   One of the many responses I received said:
   "Start discussing on sci.econ. We're all ears."(15)
 
   I received several other responses via e-mail also pointing me
to the sci.econ newsgroup or indicating interest in the topic.
Also, a computer user from California sent me e-mail with a list
of all the newsgroups that existed. Another user from Scotland
wrote telling me the name of the news file which listed the names
of the newsgroups. It is considered good NETIQUETTE (i.e. Network
Etiquette) to help new users and many of the experienced users
are very willing to do so.
 
   A few users suggested that I might want to try to start a
newsgroup for the history of economics, but that it would
probably be a wise idea to either wait awhile until I got used to
netnews before trying to initiate a group, or else try to get a
user with more experience to help.
 
   The list of newsgroups posted on Usenet News in various news
newsgroups like news.misc contains descriptions of each group.
Sci.econ is described as "the science of economics."(See also
UNIX Communications, pg.248)
 
   I have found the discussions in this newsgroup valuable. There
are often debates over important economic questions. Many of the
questions discussed concern broad social issues -- for example,
wage slavery, the development of different social forms of
society, whether economics is a science, whether the so called
"free market" has ever existed to regulate production, etc. There
has been discussion of a variety of economic and political issues
- like social security, rent control, strikes in Germany,
national health care reform, the need for shorter hours of work,
the GM plant closures, taxes, the economic programs of
presidential candidates, the role of markets in setting prices,
the economic program of Henry George, etc.
 
   Many of the other newsgroups on Usenet News are related to
computers and computer subjects. There are newsgroups where one
can ask questions regarding access to Usenet News, or about books
that are recommended for people who want to learn more about UNIX
or any other area of computer usage, etc. It is also possible to
write to someone who has posted a question and ask them to
forward a copy or summary of the responses they receive so the
post doesn't have to be duplicated. There are also newsgroups
dealing with political issues, social issues, current events,
hobbies, science, education, etc.
 
   When someone posted a critique of GM plant closures the night
that GM announced that it would lay off 70,000 people, several
people sent e-mail to the person who entered the comment saying
that it was good to see the post. Thus when someone makes an
interesting post, it is possible to send e-mail to the person and
begin to correspond, or just encourage the user to continue.
 
   Also there are political components being developed. For
example, there was an announcement that a vote was in progress to
determine whether or not there should be a classics newsgroup. If
one wrote voting "yes" or "no", the user would then be told to
verify that the vote was accurately recorded when the list was
posted announcing the final totals. Thus a procedure has been
worked out on Usenet News acknowledging that votes can't be by
secret ballot, but must be open and posted, with the person
voting having the ability to verify the outcome. 
 
   Unfortunately there are also frustrating aspects of Usenet
News. The great variety and number of posts can take considerable
time to survey and thus it is difficult to keep up with the
volume at times. A variety of software readers have been created,
to help deal with this problem.(16) Though these readers have
been copyrighted, many are freely available as long as they are
being used for personal use, not for profit. Despite the
difficulty keeping up with volume and other problems that have
developed in the course of building the netnews network(17), many
of the users on Usenet News are willing to be active participants
in the development and working out of the content and form of the
network. Many people send e-mail or post public responses when
they have something to say about a post. In this way,
communication is encouraged and exciting as one person builds on
another's contribution, and all become more knowledgeable through
the process of democratic discussion and debate.
 
   Usenet News has thus evolved a functioning governing structure
that is democratic and open in ways that have only been dreamed
of in the past. Many of the details of the copying, distribution
and propagation of Usenet News are done via automatic machinery
and programs which require that the system administrators who
make the system function work together to solve their common
problems. This same kind of cooperative relationship has been
encouraged by these system administrators among the users of
Usenet News and this cooperative standard of activity is known as
Netiquette.
 
   Many on Usenet News call the structure which functions
anarchy. But, Jean Jacques Rousseau, in A Discourse on Political
Economy, explains that the best laws are those which the
population implements voluntarily rather than via force. Thus
"Netiquette" is a system of rules or standards that users on the
Net are encouraged to follow. Also, commercial traffic and
commercial uses of netnews have been strictly limited and
circumscribed for several reasons. Among these have been the need
since the early days of Usenet News to keep commercial self-
serving traffic from both escalating the phone costs and the
noise (i.e. proportion of useless information to useful
information) of Usenet News. When the Internet became one of the
major transport mechanisms of Usenet News traffic, the prohibi-
tions against commercial traffic arising from the public funding
of the NSF backbone became a factor.(18) This restriction of self
serving and private profit making commercial purposes has
resulted in the open communication and cooperation which
proprietary self serving corporate agendas would make impossible.
Thus the governing laws (Netiquette) and structures (cooperative
and helpful) are the demonstration that more democratic
government is now possible and can achieve significant social ad-
vances and also facilitate the development of technological labor
saving breakthroughs (`arte'). On the net, the participants gain
from being active and from helping each other. People who post or
send e-mail are contributors to the culture and all gain from
each other's active efforts. A vibrant and informative bottom up,
interactive grassroots culture has been created and a broad,
worldwide, informative and functioning telecommunications network
is the product of their labors.
 
   Thus the intellectual ferment that David Hume describes as the
result of one's participation in the development of technology,
is an appropriate description of the phenomenal growth and
achievement of Usenet News. This ferment is the needed support
for the development of technology and the development of this
technology makes possible the needed political and social changes
that are required to have the technology function. The study of
economic writers who discuss the importance of such technology is
helpful in assessing the significance of such practical
developments of our contemporary times.
 
   In the 2nd half of an "Interview with a Staff Member" in The
Amateur Computerist (vol 4, no 4), there was the prediction that
connecting to Usenet News would be a significant leap forward, as
it would represent the connection for computer users with the
world. That prediction has been fulfilled by the exciting world
of computers that is available to a user who has access to Usenet
News.(19) Also, the achievement of Usenet News demonstrates the
importance of facilitating the development of uncensored speech
and communication -- there is debate and discussion - one person
influences another - people build on each other's strengths and
interests, differences, etc.
 
   Traditionally, it would require the labor of many people, much
paper, ink, and other supplies to accomplish such a massive
communication network via traditional means of newspapers or
magazines, etc. With Usenet News, however, this communication
among people and computers is accomplished via a high degree of
automation. By participating in Usenet News, millions of people
and their computers are connected into a machine that is part of
"the largest machine that man has ever constructed -- the global
telecommunications network." (20) Also, Usenet News makes it
possible for people to print up their own copies of what is
available online, without using all the paper or ink that has
traditionally been required for a press.
 
   So Welcome to the Wonderful World of Usenet News - it's
happening and it is one of the most important achievements of the
20th Century. It is very exciting to be connected with it and
just as David Hume observed over 200 years ago, participating in
the world of technology and automation being used for
telecommunications and Usenet News is indeed the basis for
beginning to do the work needed to bring the better world that
the computer is now making possible.
Ronda (ae547@yfn.ysu.edu)
 
Notes (Part 2):
* UNIX and AT&T are registered trademarks of AT&T Bell Labs.
 
(1) See "Interview with Staff member," The Amateur Computerist, 
vol 4, no 2/3, pg.10.
 
(2) Unix Communications, by Bart Anderson, Brian Costales, and

Hart Henderson, Indiana, 1991, pg.213.
 
(3) This account of the early days of Usenet News is taken from
two articles: Gene Spafford's "Usenet Software: History and
Sources" and Gregory G. Woodbury's "Net Cultural Assumptions".
 
(4) Accounts differ as to when Usenet was first introduced to the
Unix users community. Gene and Greg place the introduction of
Usenet News software on the Usenix conference tape at the Winter,
1980 meeting. Communication received from other Usenet News
pioneers like Tom Truscott, Steve Bellovin, Henry Spencer and
Geoff Collyer, however, suggests that Jim Ellis made a short
presentation about Usenet News at the Winter, 1980 Usenix
Conference in Boulder, Colorado, and handed out a five page
description "Invitation to a General Access Unix Network". The
Usenet News software, however, did not appear on the conference
tape until the Summer, 1980 Usenix meeting which was held in
Delaware. Communication from Bruce Jones, who is writing a
thesis about the history of Usenet News, supports the latter
chronology.
 
(5) Gregory G. Woodbury, "Net Cultural Assumptions".
 
(6)Greg cites a communication with Steve Bellovin agreeing with
this model and adds that "At the most they had envisioned local
clusters of machines sharing local groups and perhaps sharing ONE
group with a wider audience."
 
(7) Gregory G. Woodbury, "Net Cultural Assumptions".
 
(8) Ibid.
 
(9) But he does take note of the concern of some people at Bell
Labs that AT&T's rights in and to UNIX source code and
proprietary information be protected. Greg however emphasizes
that individual posters were concerned with the ability to
communicate, not with copyright protection.
 
(10) Spafford's "USENET Software: History and Sources".
 
(11) Details are described in the article "News Need Not Be
Slow", by Geoff Collyer and Henry Spencer, Winter 1987 "USENIX
Conference Proceedings".
 
(12) Woodbury's article "Net Cultural Assumptions" describes how
the `public domain assumption' changed when the US government
revised its copyright law and became a Berne signatory in the
late 1980s. The implications of this change have been debated on
Usenet News in the past year.
 
(13) But whether the new newsgroup will be carried has
traditionally depended upon the system administrators of the
largest systems and the new group's inclusion in the list of
newsgroups.

(14) Per conversation in August, 1992, with Henry Spencer about
the early days of the net.
 
(15) Per e-mail from Adam Grossman.
 
(16) See Gene Spafford's "USENET Software: History and Sources"
for a history and description of many of the software readers now
available.
 
(17) Various problems have been developed for users to deal with.
Some involve the efforts to impose copyright restrictions on
posts on Usenet which would make the copying and propagation
impossible; there are some users who try to intimidate people who
post by attacking them (called `flaming'), etc. But these
problems must be looked at in the context of the significant
advance that this netnews network represents.
 
(18) The National Science Foundation (NSF) has had an Appropriate
Use Policy (AUP) governing what is allowed to be transported
across the nets that it funds with public moneys. It has limited
usage basically to research and education activities. As Usenet
has been transported across the NSFNet backbone, this policy of
the NSF has helped Usenet to develop as an educational rather
than commercial network. (It is questionable whether a commercial
network could have been developed, given the secret and
proprietary activities of commercial enterprises.) However the
AUP is being challenged now by the growing commercial use of
networks like ANS (Advanced Networks and Services) a company
founded by MCI and IBM that is now part of the MERIT, NSF, ANS
organizational chain, which is opening up access to commercial
traffic endangering the development and education and research
function that the net thus far has achieved. Also, many large
corporations, though seemingly restricted in their use of the net
to educational and research purposes, are also the backbone sites
along which netnews is transferred. Some corporations use Usenet
for their research and educational functions, but run a separate
private net alongside of their Usenet News operation for their
commercial purposes.
 
(19) A system of Freenets, including Cleveland Freenet and
Youngstown Freenet in Ohio, USA, Ottawa Freenet in Canada, etc.
some of which provide public access to Usenet News, are beginning
to develop. These are open to the public and Usenet News is
fairly easy to access from these once one has set up an account
which is available at no charge.
 
(20) Ithiel de Sola Pool, Technology Without Boundaries, ed. Eli
Noam, (Cambridge, 1990) pg.56.
 
   Special thanks to the many people on Usenet News who commented
on this article in its various draft stages and for their helpful
comments and criticisms. Also thanks to the pioneers of Usenet
who answered questions and made material available for the part
about the early days of Usenet News.

--

This is work is being contributed to the Net to support its 
cooperative nature.  It may be freely distributed for 
noncommercial purposes. Commercial use is not permitted.

                         Ronda Hauben
                         ronda@umcc.umich.edu
                         Michael Hauben
                         hauben@columbia.edu