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ACTUALLY, in 1961, Leonard Kleinrock of MIT invented the concept of wide area networks in his paper "Information Flow In Large Communication Nets" (1). After t

ACTUALLY, in 1961, Leonard Kleinrock of MIT invented the concept of wide area networks in his paper "Information Flow In Large Communication Nets" (1). After that, in 1964, a RAND employee by the name of Paul Baran wrote a paper entitled "On Distributed Communications Networks"(2), furthering the concepts outlined by Kleinrock. It wasn't until AFTER Lawrence Roberts, also of MIT, wrote "Towards a Cooperative Network of Time-Shared Computers", that ARPA funded research on the idea. FINALLY, it was National Physical Laboratory in England that created the first wide-area packet switching network in 1967. So, NO, the government didn't INVENT the Internet. They built a closed, packet switching network that the public could not access, based on principles and ideas generated at a smattering of schools and PRIVATE COMPANIES. (1) http://www.lk.cs.ucla.edu/LK/Bib/REPORT/PhD/ http://www.lk.cs.ucla.edu/LK/Bib/REPORT/PhD/ (2) http://www.rand.org/about/history/baran.html http://www.rand.org/about/history/baran.html

toomuchcoffee 14y ago
Wow -- he's contradicted himself so blatantly here, it's almost stunning. Ignoring issues of selection bias, let's just take a closer look at the sources he's citing here: >In 1961, Leonard Kleinrock of MIT invented the concept of wide area networks in his paper "Information Flow In Large Communication Nets" (1). As the "peacetime" successor to the famed RadLab, the RLE, where Kleinrock worked a did his PhD research, appears to have been in essence just another post-war Big Government appendage. Quoting from WP: "On January 1, 1946, under the sponsorship of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development, the RadLab's Basic Research Division continued work at MIT as a transitional organization. ... On July 1, 1946, the Basic Research Division was finally incorporated in to the new Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT." >In 1964, a RAND employee by the name of Paul Baran... Umm, RAND? You'll hardly find a more illustrious poster child for the post-war Military Industrial Complex than the RAND corporation. >The National Physical Laboratory in England that created the first wide-area packet switching network in 1967. [emphasis mine] Enough said.

toomuchcoffee 14y ago

Wow -- he's contradicted himself so blatantly here, it's almost stunning. Ignoring issues of selection bias, let's just take a closer look at the sources he's citing here: >In 1961, Leonard Kleinrock of MIT invented the concept of wide area networks in his paper "Information Flow In Large Communication Nets" (1). As the "peacetime" successor to the famed RadLab, the RLE, where Kleinrock worked a did his PhD research, appears to have been in essence just another post-war Big Government appendage. Quoting from WP: "On January 1, 1946, under the sponsorship of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development, the RadLab's Basic Research Division continued work at MIT as a transitional organization. ... On July 1, 1946, the Basic Research Division was finally incorporated in to the new Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT." >In 1964, a RAND employee by the name of Paul Baran... Umm, RAND? You'll hardly find a more illustrious poster child for the post-war Military Industrial Complex than the RAND corporation. >The National Physical Laboratory in England that created the first wide-area packet switching network in 1967. [emphasis mine] Enough said.