What provoked the idea of the Internet?
This is actually the beginning of the remarkable story of the Internet...
In the Beginning
The time was during the end of the second world war and the year 1957. The United States of America was the world's greatest nation, super-power, the richest nation and it was growing richer all the time. But then there was a breaking news, a news that arrived shocking America's belief in itself: "The Russians are in space!".
Sputnik 1
This was the evening of 4th October the same year - 1957, and the US President during then, Dwight D. Eisenhower was very much disturbed. He did not like surprises, not to mention from the Russians.Until this moment America believed that their nation was the most powerful on Earth. But the Soviet Union had gone beyond the Earth. This was the time of the cold war. A war that was not just about armies and weapons. A war that was also of Technology and ideas. Each side presented its successes in Science and Technology as proof that its political system was better. And, here was the Soviet Union - the America's greatest enemy, with the first satelite ever: The Sputnik 1, in Space.
The Sputnik 1 had an electronic beep... beep... beep sound that could be heard over millions of radios all over the world. It measured only 58 cm across, but most importantly, every 96 minutes it crossed the skies of the US like a new moon, a Russian moon.Although Sputnik 1 was a clear and existing fact precisely to the point that the Russians were making it, the US had no room to admit defeat.
"What are we going to do about this?" President Eisenhower asked his Secretary of Defense, Neil McElroy.
"There is no real reason to worry," McElroy replied. "Sputnik is not a danger for us. Our Scientists are better than their Scientists." He explained.
But that was not Mr. President's worry. He simply did not like surprises. He didn't want to be surprised like this again.
"In future we will make sure that we are ahead of the Russians in all important technologies."
"What are you suggesting Mr. President?" The Secretary of Defense asked.
ARPA
President Eisenhower was suggesting a new department that would direct all the high Technology work. He wanted all his best Scientists, in the world, to keep US ahead of the Russians. He was demanding more concentration and efforts in technological development which lead to the formation of ARPA.
ARPA (Advanced Research Project Agency) , was sooner than expected spending millions of dollars on research into new Science and Technology. In lonely laboratories deep in the desert and mountains of the US, brilliant men and women explored extraordinary new ideas. Scientists build bombs that could spread terrible diseases; Engineers made plans for war in space; and, Psychologists tried to train people to communicate through the power of thought alone. But, much effort in the earliest projects were aimed at winning the 'space race' the Sputnik had proudly started.
It was not long when NASA ( National Aeronautics and Space Administration) took over the space project. NASA captured Americas imagination all through the 1960s, especially after President Kennedy announced his plan to land man on the moon.
The New Focus
While NASA filled the news, ARPA on the other hand, worked quietly in computing: an area that would prove far much important than space travel.
Computers were still a very new technology at this time. They were less common than Rolls-Royce cars, and more expensive. They costed million of dollars and were the size of an apartment, mainly used for Mathematics. And, they were mostly owned by Universities, the government and large companies.
Luckily, ARPA had both time and space to continue with its projects at its own pace. On the contrary, there was still a problem. ARPA was using so much money to pay different people for doing the same work and, only one person had noticed this.
Solving the puzzle
Bob Taylor, the man incharge of ARPA's computer projects, realized that computers were not just machines that could calculate, they could communicate as well. And his solution for this problem he had discovered was ARPAnet. ARPAnet was to be a computer network - a collection of computers linked together using a transmission media with the objective of communication and resource sharing, the first computer network ever, by joining four mainframe computer which were at UCLA ( University of California in Los Angeles), Stanford Research Institute, Utah and Santa Barbara respectively.
ARPAnet
"A computer network?" Taylor's idea sounded insane during then, and the ready answer was: "Impossible". "How?" Everyone seemed to be asking, "this are different computers operating on different languages?" They argued. But Bob Taylor was convinced and optimistic. He managed to convince has senior and a new project was on: the construction of ARPAnet.
The matter was discussed, ideas noted and finally, the tender was announced.
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