Thursday, July 11, 2002

I won't say that humans out in the Big and most of you down on Earth are becoming two different peoples. But our sensibilities can be very different.

Take multi-party on-line conferences. Three parties, let's say. Yours:Toronto, Hong Kong, and London. Mine:Clavius, L5-la-ville, and High Manhattan.

You moan about 3 or 4 seconds latency between parties. Five is just insufferable and anything more is a letter off to the carrier with a copy posted to your favourite discussion groups. You have what we call 'Least Fuss Routing' of data packets (that's your fussing, not the carriers or the routing software), so data always gets where it's going the fastest possible way, fibre, radio-link, or worst choice, satellite or copper. Along with higher priority for video and audio data streams over simple text or binary transfers, you're surfing in paradise. And you don't appreciate it.

The worst crowflight your data can take is all the way around the world at the equator, which is what, 38,000 km? And the speed of light in a vacuum is 3x105 kps. So allow a little slower transmission rate for fibre or atmosphere, and 3 or 5 seconds is worst latency you're likely to get on an average day down on the Dirt. (Don't e-mail me with documented proof of 10 seconds latency on a simple ping back in '68. I said average.)

Our conference on the other hand, has all three legs that are each nearly 4x105 km long. One way. So just to say 'hey' and get a 'hey' back is 3 seconds. If there's no data congestion. And no EM interference from the Sun, or you guys.(Radio free-for-all light-minutes out in all directions, I swear.) So, when the people at our three locations are trying to have an important meeting, the one with the slowest latency time has to wait until the one with the longest has got the original -say - question, and thought about it and replied.

There is no way adding more data pipelines can overcome this. The problem is not a paucity of routes or inefficient routing algorithms. We have stations and relays and satellites all over, and our networking software is by and large better than yours. The problem is the limitation imposed on our communications by distance, by c.

Okay. So I'll hope you get the difference. That is, why we think differently, and not just about how we communicate. That's only an example. And a good metaphor.

The distances out here are truly the thing. You might think it was the Big itself, the vacuum, 'the final physics lesson' as one guy put it. No. It's the distance.

And I bet you're thinking right now, 'Hmm. Travel must be an imperial bitch.'

Yup.

And I'm breaking my own rule about these postings by coming back a day later to add one thing relevant to the distance/latency issue. Spacers are, by a long shot, way more patient than you.


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