Indeed, "brute force" solutions are often characteristic of advanced cultures, not primitive ones. The Romans and their predecessors spent a long time figuring out how to build arches... and virtually all our buildings today use post-and-lintel construction, precisely what the arch was devised to replace. We have better materials and more money, and given that, arches are usually not worth the extra complexity.

Space
Spencer is a founding member of the Canadian Space Society and has served on its Board of Directors several times since 1984. He also developed a 4 point font used by entomologists in labeling pinned insect specimens. Circa 1993 Spencer donated a second version of his RE library to 4.

His records from that period were eventually acquired by Google to provide an archive of Usenet in the 1980s. Later in 1981 Spencer acquired a Usenet feed from Duke University and brought "utzoo" online; the earliest public archives of Usenet date from May 1981 as a result. He is coauthor with David Lawrence of the book Managing Usenet.