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+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
+
+
+
+Borenstein & Linimon                                            [Page 1]
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+Borenstein & Linimon                                            [Page 2]
+
+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
+
+
+
+Borenstein & Linimon                                            [Page 3]
+
+RFC 1437          MIME Content-Types for a New Medium       1 April 1993
+
+
+   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.)
+
+
+
+
+
+Borenstein & Linimon                                            [Page 4]
+
+RFC 1437          MIME Content-Types for a New Medium       1 April 1993
+
+
+   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--
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Borenstein & Linimon                                            [Page 5]
+
+RFC 1437          MIME Content-Types for a New Medium       1 April 1993
+
+
+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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+Borenstein & Linimon                                            [Page 6]
+
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