Re: Anthrax on the 'net [Was Re: Fear of Flying -- from HotWired ]

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 9:14 PM 9/17/96, Mike Fletcher wrote:

>        The Frank Herbert (of _Dune_ fame) book _White Plague_ comes
>to mind.  Basically a molecluar biologist's wife and kids are killed
>by an IRA bomb while visiting Dublin.  He snaps and creates a plague
>which kills women (men are carriers) as revenge.  All without using
>that nasty Internet (in fact, the book was written back before even
>ARPAnet).

A _very_ minor correction. My copy of "The White Plague" is not handy, but
I distinctly recall reading it circa 1980-1, certainly no earlier than
1977-8.

The ARPANet was going strong by then.

Newsgroups were getting started around 1980, give or take, as I recall.

But of course I agree that "The White Plague" was written long before "The
Net" became a household name. (Interestingly, Herbert was
computer-literate, and he even wrote a book about using PCs, circa the late
70s....something like "Nailing Jelly to a Tree.")

--Tim May



We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
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