This evening I attended Dr. Katie Hafner’s lecture The Origins of the Internet. Her discussion outlined the work of several brilliant creators and inventors, including JCR Licklider, Paul Barran, and Larry Roberts. These men, among others, all played integral roles in the creation of the Internet in the later half of the 20th century. The inkling of computers and connected terminals and nodes emerged after the Soviets launched Sputnik into space in 1957. In the following year, the US Department of Defense opened up a new branch now known as DARPA, intended to research high level and cutting edge military technology. DARPA brought along prominent scientists and psychologists such as JCR Licklider, who helped create the first terminals. These giant, monolithic terminals had no way of communicating with each other until Paul Barran championed the idea of packet switching, which would eventually set the stage for modern technological communication. Packet switching, in its simplest terms, breaks up the originally sent message, sends bits and pieces throughout different networks, and eventually reassembles the message at its final destination. The Department of Defense’s creation of ARPAnet now allowed for online communication. Another important concept to understand in the formative stages of the Internet was that it was intended to be able to survive a nuclear attack. Early schematic drawings by Larry Roberts showed how the software was wired to route around the damage, and could actually still function and communicate in despite of the nuclear threat.
One interesting point made by Dr. Hafner that connects to our class is the idea of the time being right for a certain invention or change to take place. Often, we think of great inventions and leaders as emerging from the bottom and inciting a great change. The emergence of the Internet should no doubt be credited to the diligent and genius men and women who made such a feat possible, but it is also important to recognize that the Cold War was an era in which great funding and attention was given to the Department of Defense. At the height of the Cold War, the innovation and the technological advances of this department were not just seen as a triumph of American democracy and Western Science, but they were also seen as imperative to American survival. Without such a great conflict, the Department of Defense may not have received such great funding and attention, preventing prolific men like Licklider and Barran from conducting their research. The timing, and the cultural context of the 1960s and well into the 1980s played essential roles in the degree of importance that was associated with created a communicable, online network, one that would change human society forever.
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