A VIEW FROM THE 21ST CENTURY
RFC 1607

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Network Working Group                                           V. Cerf
Request for Comments: 1607                             Internet Society
Category: Informational                                    1 April 1994

                      A VIEW FROM THE 21ST CENTURY

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
   does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
   this memo is unlimited.

A NOTE TO THE READER

   The letters below were discovered in September 1993 in a reverse
   time-capsule apparently sent from 2023. The author of this paper
   cannot vouch for the accuracy of the letter contents, but spectral
   and radiation analysis are consistent with origin later than 2020. It
   is not known what, if any, effect will arise if readers take actions
   based on the future history contained in these documents.  I trust
   you will be particularly careful with our collective futures!

THE LETTERS

   To: "Jonathan Bradel" <jbradel@astro.luna.edu>
   CC: "Therese Troisema" <ttroisema@inria.fr>
   From: "David Kenter" <dkenter@xob.isea.mr>
   Date: September 8, 2023 08:47.01 MT
   Subject:  Hello from the Exobiology Lab!

   Hi Jonathan!

   I just wanted to let you know that I have settled in my new
   offices at the Exobiology Lab at the Interplanetary Space
   Exploration Agency's base here on Mars. The trip out was
   uneventful and did let me get through an awful lot of
   reading in preparation for my three year term here. There
   is an excellent library of material here at the lab and
   reasonable communications back home, thanks to the CommRing
   satellites that were put up last year here. The transfer
   rates are only a few terabits per second, but this is
   usually adequate for the most part.

   We've been doing some simulation work to test various
   theories of bio-history on Mars and I have attached the
   output of one of the more interesting runs. The results are

Cerf                                                            [Page 1]
RFC 1607              A View from the 21st Century          1 April 1994

   best viewed with a model VR-95HR/OS headset with the
   peripheral glove adapter. I would recommend finding an
   outdoor location if you activate the olfactory simulator
   since some of the outputs are pretty rank! You'll notice
   that atmospheric outgassing seriously interfered with any
   potential complex life form development.

   We tried a few runs to see what would happen if an
   atmospheric confinement/replenishment system had been in
   place, but the results are too speculative to be more than
   entertaining at this point. There has been some serious
   discussion of terra-forming options, but the economics are
   still very unclear, as are the time-frames for realizing
   any useful results.

   I have also been trying out some new exercises to recover
   from the effects of the long trip out. I've attached a
   sample neuroscan clip which will give you some feeling for
   the kinds of gymnastics that are possible in this gravity
   field. My timing is still pretty lousy, but I hope it will
   improve with practice.

   I'd appreciate it very much if you could track down the
   latest NanoConstructor ToolKit from MIT. I have need of
   some lab gear which isn't available here and which would be
   a lot easier to fabricate with the tool kit. The version I
   have is NTK-R5 (2020) and I know there has been a lot added
   since then.

   Therese,

   I wanted you to see the simulation runs, too. You may be
   able to coax better results from the EXAFLOP array at CERN,
   if you still have an account there. We're still limping
   along with the 50 PFLOP system that Danny Hillis donated to
   the agency a few years back.

   The attached HD video clip shows the greenhouse efforts
   here to grow grapes from the cuttings that were brought out
   five years ago. We're still a long ways from '82
   Beaucastel!

   Gotta get ready for a sampling trip to Olympus Mons, so
   will send this off for now.

   Warmest regards,

   David

Cerf                                                            [Page 2]
RFC 1607              A View from the 21st Century          1 April 1994

   -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

   To: "David Kenter" <dkenter@xob.isea.mr>
   CC: "Therese Troisema" <ttroisema@inria.fr>
   From: "Jonathan Bradel" <jbradel@astro.luna.edu>
   Date: September 10, 2023 12:30:14 LT
   Subject: Re: Hello from the Exobiology Lab!

   David,

   Many thanks for your note and all its news and interesting
   data! Melanie and I are glad to know you are settled now
   and back at work. We've been making heavy use of the new
   darkside reflector telescope and, thanks to the new petabit
   fiber links that were introduced last year, we have very
   effective controls from Luna City. We've been able to run
   some really interesting synthetic aperture observations by