Unix and Monopoly Capital

Unix was distributed gratis to many universities while a high price was charged to commercial clients in the initial years of the operating system’s existence. This free distribution helped proliferate the Unix code and created a large web of users in the 1970s and 1980s. However, this also created a hierarchy of Unix knowledge amongst users that the author labels as a cultural influence from Western and capitalistic culture. The free quality of Unix also makes it collaborative and cooperative in nature. In turn, this collaborative community is what drove innovation and improvements to the operating system.  

The MOO draws out and enacts some of the contradictions inherent not only in Unix and Unix culture but also in capitalism and Western culture and thus has many representations of a physical world inside itself. This is seen in the way that Unix exists for a reason that doesn’t answer to an immediate human need but rather a desire to continuously reproduce the objectification of labor and thus further propagate the delineation of man.

PMC-MOO: A Virtual Community

John Unsworth describes his experience with the PMC-MOO which arose as an offshoot of the electronic journal Postmodern Culture.  Its main functions were to “provide a text-based conferencing facility for journal related activities” and to create programs which could simulate or demonstrate postmodern concepts.  It was initially a very chaotic environment without any sort of etiquette or organization. Beyond the noise issue, there was the problem of identity and accountability. There was a lot of borrowing code without crediting and anonymity and disorder seemed to provide fertile ground for antisocial behavior.  After a time, however, some stabilization occurred which allowed for valuable discussions on various topics. PMC-MOO was able to draw a lot a wide variety of non-specialists into discussions on theoretical issues and also inspired people from non-technical backgrounds to dabble in programming as a result of the experience of inhabiting a shared programming environment.  This demonstrates the MOO’s ability to turn play into something useful in the context of a supportive and engaging community.

TJ and Gray—>Capitalism and Unix

Zaria—> Virtual community

TJ edited and posted