Yesterday evening I went to the first presentation of the Digital Dystopias series. Katie Hafner presented The Origins of the Internet. Her research covered the time period of 1965-1990, focusing on the precursor to the internet and some of the basic structuring behind how it works. One of the most interesting facts to me was the exponential growth of hosts between 1965-1999 (20 million) and since then it has grown to 150 billion. It was strange to think about the invention of something that I have been familiar with my whole life was just coming into existence about 50 years ago.
Hafner also talked about the development of how the internet was structured and packet switching. The precursor to the internet, ARPAnet was developed by Bob Taylor and Larry Roberts to solve a problem that Taylor was having – the three computers in his office couldn’t communicate with each other. It was fascinating to learn that the internet was (and is) created on a decentralized network, because it allows for information to reach a source regardless of if there is damage along the way. Similarly to that, I found it very interesting that packet switching – breaking up information, sending it to the destination, and then reassembling it – was not only invented in the 60’s-70’s, but is still one of the primary ways information is sent securely.
Overall, I enjoyed learning about the positive, hopeful start to the internet, and I am interested to see what dystopias the next speakers will bring up.
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