Who Invented the Internet
The World Wide Web, or the Internet, is something quite remarkable. In the past second, 109,000 YouTube videos were watched, 51,000 searches on Google were made, and over 2,500,000 emails were read. One second passes, and another, and yet another. Millions of people's ideas, stories, pictures, histories, and their lives are stored on the Internet. Almost all the information on any given subject at any given moment fits in your pocket on a little screen.
To whom do we credit one of the greatest advances in human communication and interaction? Who created the tool that is used daily by 37.3% of the world's population? To answer that, we have to go to MIT, not today, but back in 1962. J.C.R. Licklider, an MIT researcher, released a paper on his "Galactic Network" concept. The "Galactic Network" is the first proposition of the modern Internet we know today. Licklider became the first computer lead at DARPA- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In 1966, with the help of others at DARPA, Lawrence G. Roberts was able to connect 2 computers, across the country, with a low speed dial-up telephone. This was the first "internet connection". He showed off his system at a convention and met a man from the UK who had been working on the same thing.
Apparently, three companies had all been discovering the Internet simultaneously without any of them knowing. So, they decided to collaborate and create the ARPANET, or the Internet. But it still had a long way to go. The first host computer was installed at UCLA and a program made to give a face to ARPANET. by the end of 1969, there were 4 host computers connected and communicating. When DARPA introduced ARPANET at the ICCC (an international computer convention), there were several computers connected and running a form of e-mail. Over the next 10 or so years, DARPA worked to improve and publish their creation, transforming it into the multi-hosting, satellite-fed Internet of today.
Who actually invented the Internet? Well, some argue Licklider, while some say Roberts. In my opinion, the creation of the Internet should be credited to all the scientists at DARPA. Why not celebrate them all? After all, the Internet is a pretty cool place.
