Network Working Group N. Borenstein
`Request for Comments: 1437 Bellcore
` M. Linimon
` Lonesome Dove Computing Services
` 1 April 1993
`
` The Extension of MIME Content-Types to a New Medium
`
`Status of this Memo
`
` This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
` not specify an Internet standard. Distribution of this memo is
` unlimited.
`
`Abstract
`
` A previous document, RFC 1341, defines a format and general framework
` for the representation of a wide variety of data types in Internet
` mail. This document defines one particular type of MIME data, the
` matter-transport/sentient-life-form type. The matter-
` transport/sentient-life-form MIME type is intended to facilitate the
` wider interoperation of electronic mail messages that include entire
` sentient life forms, such as human beings.
`
` Other informally proposed subtypes, such as "non-sentient-life-form",
` "non-sentient-non-life-form", and the orthogonally necessary but
` nevertheless puzzling "sentient-non-life-form", are not described in
` this memo.
`
`The matter-transport/sentient-life-form MIME type
`
` In order to promote the wider interoperability of life-bearing email,
` this document defines a new MIME content-type, "matter-transport",
` and for an initial subtype, "sentient-life-form". This subtype was
` designed to meet the following criteria:
`
` 1. The syntax must be extremely simple to parse, to minimize the
` risk of accidental death due to misinterpretation of the standard.
`
` 2. The data format must be extremely robust, with redundancy to
` ensure that individual life forms will survive and be
` reconstituted in such a form as to be nearly indistinguishable
` from their initial state, no matter how many bizarre email
` gateways are encountered in transit.
`
` 3. The syntax must be extensible to allow for the description of
` all yet-undiscovered aspects of life forms which will be required
`
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`AT&T EXHIBIT 1023
`
`

`

`RFC 1437 MIME Content-Types for a New Medium 1 April 1993
`
` for the transport of non-human species (e.g. dolphins, Klingons,
` or politicians).
`
` 4. The syntax must be compatible with SGML, so that with an
` appropriate DTD (Document Type Definition -- the standard
` mechanism for defining a document type using SGML), a general SGML
` parser could be written to parse the data structure and produce
` directives to a lifeform-reconstitution mechanism. However,
` despite this compatibility, the syntax will most likely be far
` simpler than that of full SGML (so that no SGML knowledge is
` required in order to implement it), since it is anticipated that
` the full complexities of SGML will not be necessary for the
` description of even arbitrarily complex organic life forms.
`
` The syntax of the new content-type is very simple, and indeed makes
` considerable sacrifice of efficiency in the interest of simplicity.
` It is assumed to describe a three-dimensional rectangular solid, with
` the height, width, and depth (calibrated in centimeters) specified as
` parameters on the content-type line. (In general, this should be a
` cube that completely contains the life form being transported; but,
` where high bandwidth is not available, a somewhat smaller cube can be
` used, provided that facilities are known to be available at the
` recipient’s end to administer the medical first aid that could be
` necessary if an individual is reconstituted sans some of its
` extremities.) A fourth parameter gives the resolution of the matter
` scan, calibrated in Angstroms. Thus, the following Content-type
` value:
`
` Content-type: matter-transport/sentient-life-form;
` height = 200; width = 60; depth=60; resolution=10
`
` implies that the cube being described is 60 cm by 60 cm by 200 cm,
` and is described to a resolution of 10 Angstroms. The resolution
` gives the quantization unit, and therefore determines the quality of
` the reproduction. The data stream itself then consists of a readout
` of the molecule found at each location, using the given resolution.
` If the resolution is high enough that more than one molecule is found
` in a given location, the molecule whose nucleus is closest to the
` center of the cube is used. Each molecule is described by its
` molecular formula, rendered in ASCII for maximum readability if
` matter-transport mail is inadvertently delivered to a human recipient
` and displayed on a terminal screen. Each molecule is followed by a
` space (ASCII 32) to separate it from the subsequent molecule
` description. Extremely long molecules may require the use of a
` content-transfer-encoding such as quoted-printable, to ensure that
` line-wrapping mail systems do not, for example, cause the unintended
` breakdown of complex proteins into their constituent elements.
`
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`

`RFC 1437 MIME Content-Types for a New Medium 1 April 1993
`
` The following is a message that gives a somewhat simplified rendition
` of a well-known American politician, starting from the top:
`
` From: "Nathaniel S. Borenstein" <nsb@bellcore.com>
` To: Mark Linimon <linimon@lonesome.com>
` Subject: Think hard before reconstructing
` Content-description: Dan Quayle, low-res version
` Content-type: matter-transport/sentient-life-form
` height = 200; width = 60; depth=60; resolution=100000
`
` Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe
` Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe
` Fe NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 Fe
` Fe NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 Fe
` Fe NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 Fe
` Fe NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 Fe
` Fe NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 Fe
` Fe NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 Fe
` Fe NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 Fe
` Fe NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 Fe
` Fe NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 Fe
` Fe NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 Fe
` Fe NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 Fe
` Fe NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 Fe
` Fe NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 NO2 Fe
` Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe
` Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe
`
` Obviously, a real politician’s skull is more complex than pure iron,
` as is its interior, but this simplified example should give the
` general flavor of the protocol.
`
` (A caveat, however, in the reconstitution of Vice-Presidents of the
` United States: allegedly, some of the matter-reconstitution schemes
` currently under development are reputed to perform less than
` optimally while trying to reconstitute areas of relatively high
` vacuum; for instance, their skulls. A recommended acceptance test
` might be to experiment with subjects whose skulls are only at partial
` vacuum, such as Vice-Presidents of Marketing.)
`
`MHS (X.400) Gateway Considerations
`
` The proper behavior of a MIME/MHS gateway with regard to the
` transmission of complex multimedia messages is a topic of ongoing
` investigation under the auspices of the IETF. The addition of matter
` transport should not significantly complicate that effort, as it is
` already necessary to specify gateway behavior for MIME types that
` have no X.400 equivalents, and matter transport is simply another
`
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`RFC 1437 MIME Content-Types for a New Medium 1 April 1993
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` such untranslatable type.
`
` However, real-world X.400 gateways might be considered to
` significantly increase the hazard that mail containing a human being
` will be rejected with a message so cryptic that the recipient deletes
` it without ever realizing that an embedded human being is enclosed.
` For this reason, it is recommended that the subject of matter
` transport be explicitly marked "for further study" in the next
` generation of the X.400 specification, X.400-1996. This will give
` the community ample time to define a more complete specification for
` matter transport as part of X.400-2000, and possibly even a readily-
` implementable specification as part of X.400-2004, although some will
` no doubt argue that this would be too strong a break with tradition.
`
`Implementation Considerations
`
` The user is cautioned against passing MIME transporter messages
` through computers equipped with the NFS file system. A no-file space
` error caused one of the laboratory rats on our prototype system to be
` truncated to a zero-length file. Unfortunately we had neglected to
` mount a scratch rat. (We have decided to permanently retain the
` empty filename in his honor).
`
` Byte swapping problems on other storage systems can be similarly
` annoying, but should not be a problem if network byte order is always
` maintained ocrrcelty.
`
` Despite the authors’ belief in the robustness of the protocol,
` passage of email through certain systems seems to result in the
` sentient-life-form arriving at its destination upside down, resulting
` in an annoying "thud". The cause is still under investigation.
`
` Interoperation with matter-transporters using polar coordinate
` systems is discouraged, due to round-off and other algorithmic errors
` in certain ubiquitous floating-point implementations, leading to
` results which are best discreetly described as "disappointing."
`
` Similarly, off-by-one errors should be avoided.
`
` Widespread adoption of this protocol may lead to an increase in user
` demand for reliable backup systems. More importantly, for the first
` time management may be motivated to adequately fund such systems when
` they discover the possibility that proper email backup may confer
` upon them virtual immortality. (On the other hand, implementors
` should seriously consider the desirability of making their managers
` immortal.)
`
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`RFC 1437 MIME Content-Types for a New Medium 1 April 1993
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` An additional concern reflects the fact that, prior to the
` introduction of this content-type, duplicate mail delivery was a
` relatively minor nuisance. With the mail extensions described in
` this document, however, comes the possibility that duplicate mail
` delivery will leave a user with, for example, multiple spouses or
` mothers-in-law. The relative weights of the desire to avoid
` duplicate delivery and the desire to avoid lost mail may change
` accordingly.
`
`Security Considerations
`
` Security considerations are not discussed in this memo. However, law
` enforcement officials might wish to consider the possibility that
` this mechanism could be used by criminals, either to escape
` extradition by mailing themselves outside of a legal jurisdiction, or
` to outwait the statute of limitations by mailing themselves through
` complex mail routes with long delays. (One supposes that they could
` also look on the bright side, and consider MIME as a possible
` approach to solving the long-standing problem of prison
` overcrowding.)
`
`Authors
`
` The authors of this document may be reconstituted by feeding the
` following data to an Internet-connected MIME reader:
`
`Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=NextAuthor
`
`--NextAuthor
`Content-type: message/external-body; access-type=anon-ftp;
` site=thumper.bellcore.com; directory=pub/nsb; name=nsb.flesh
`Content-Description: Nathaniel Borenstein
`
`Content-type: matter-transport/sentient-life-form
` height = 200; width = 60; depth=60; resolution=100000
`--NextAuthor
`Content-type: message/external-body; access-type=anon-ftp;
` site=thumper.bellcore.com; directory=pub/nsb; name=linimon.flesh
`Content-Description: Mark Linimon
`
`Content-type: matter-transport/sentient-life-form
` height = 200; width = 60; depth=60; resolution=100000
`--NextAuthor--
`
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`RFC 1437 MIME Content-Types for a New Medium 1 April 1993
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`Authors’ Addresses
`
` Nathaniel Borenstein
` Bellcore Room MRE 2D-296
` 445 South Street
` Morristown, NJ 07962-1910
`
` Phone: (201) 829-4270
` EMail: nsb@bellcore.com
`
` Mark Linimon
` Lonesome Dove Computing Services
` P.O. Box 20291
` Roanoke, VA 24018
`
` Phone: (703) 776-1004
` EMail: linimon@LONESOME.COM
`
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`