Internet History Primer

I'm constantly amazed at how little of the world we really understand. Read and learn!

Roughly speaking most people are familiar with the history of the Internet. In its efforts to produce a nuclear-proof communication system the American government assigned the development of a multi-node communication system that would not be operated by a specific center, to the well known RAND (Research And Development) research center. Thus, in case of a node been struck by the enemy the network would be operational when bypassing the faulty node. That simple, and ingenious at the same time idea, was met with terrifying opposition when it came to be realized, as the network architect, Paul Baran, has revealed in an interview of his, for the Wired magazine: the biggest threat for the new network, Baran says, was not the USSR, but the AT&T, the telephone company with exclusive rights in the USA. The irony of it was, that the company did not respond negatively due to the fact that it was in position of foreseeing the ominous future in store for it, but because its executives could not…comprehend what the network was. The philosophy of hierarchy prevailed at the time. Even a communication network that would not comply with a specific chain of command seemed absurd.