Evolution of the Internet: History

internet historyAs with many histories, a history of the Internet can have many versions, with different interpretations by authors of what is important or relevant, and when/where something was imagined, named, or developed, and by whom (just try googling "internet history"). It's interconnected with the history of technology, computers and society. Which aspects and level of detail would you like to know more about below -- or that I've omitted -- in my current version of history? (don't worry -- we won't discuss every item or click every link).

Quotes
  • "We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology." ~Carl Sagan

  • "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur Clarke's 3rd 'law'

  • "The Internet is the most important single development in the history of human communication since the invention of call waiting." ~Dave Barry

  • "What, exactly, is the Internet? Basically it is a global network exchanging digitized data in such a way that any computer, anywhere, that is equipped with a device called a "modem" can make a noise like a duck choking on a kazoo." ~Dave Barry

  • "It's been my policy to view the Internet not as an 'information highway,' but as an electronic asylum filled with babbling loonies." ~Mike Royko

  • "The Internet is the trailer park for the soul." ~Marilyn Manson

  • "The Web is trivially simple - massively successful and it's like Karaoke - anybody can do it." ~Ted Nelson

  • "I have an almost religious zeal - not for technology per se, but for the Internet which is for me, the nervous system of mother Earth, which I see as a living creature, linking up." ~Dan Millman

what is internet

What is the Internet?
Milestones

difference engine

1800s-1900s


memex

1940s-1950s


1960s


1970s


1980s


1990s


2000s


ipad nyt

2010s


upgrade brain

Future?
  • "The Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity. It is the most temporal part of time -- for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays." ~C.S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters

  • "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." ~Alan Kay

  • "I used to think that cyberspace was fifty years away. What I thought was fifty years away, was only ten years away. And what I thought was ten years away... it was already here. I just wasn't aware of it yet." ~Bruce Sterling

  • knowledge navigator"I don't have to write about the future. For most people, the present is enough like the future to be pretty scary." ~William Gibson
  • "The future has already arrived. It's just not evenly distributed yet." ~William Gibson

What Will The Internet Look Like In 10 Years? (Internet Society scenarios)
2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal (Singularity; Kurzweil)
cartoons: upgrades, origin of people
Note: we'll look more at the future much more during upcoming sections.

History Sites

computer lib

Terminology, Acronyms, Jargon, Quotes