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host
- noun The computer or network upon which a MUA runs.
Players typically use communications software of some
description to link to the host, which does the majority of processing
(although some FE activities may take place at the player's
end in a client). When MUD2 was first launched, BT placed a series of
advertisements using the slogan "the Host in the machine",
trying to convey the impression that: (a) the game was
welcoming and friendly; (b) a lot of people would be playing
it; (c) an expensive ad agency had been involved to produce
such a boldly weak and inappropriate pun (on "The Ghost in the
Machine", a quotation from chapter 1 of "The Concept of Mind"
by Gilbert Ryle). Sadly, to computer-literate (but literature-illiterate) modem owners, this proved merely confusing ("But
the host _is_ the machine, surely?"). See carrier loss, comms.
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