Who are What Really Created the Internet?

Have you ever pondered on who actually created the internet? While some people have amassed great wealth through the internet, all they did was invent clever ways of utilizing it. Therefore, the individual who truly "invented the internet" should be a multibillionaire, perhaps even equivalent to a deity. But who deserves the credit? Was it a British nerd working in a Swiss underground laboratory? Maybe. Brilliant Americans threatened by the possibility of nuclear destruction at the hands of the Russians? A compelling theory. Or was it a group of French scientists who decided to call their computer network "Le Internet"? Interesting indeed. Perhaps it was due to a multitude of intelligent scientists working on something they knew was valuable, but were unaware of just how significant it would become.

Let's examine the facts about the invention of the internet. The internet is a vast network of interconnected computer networks, while the World Wide Web is a means of facilitating the sharing of information over these networks. The development of the internet as we know it today took over 40 years. It is a popular misconception that the US created the internet for use in the event of a nuclear war. However, according to one of the founders of the first network, ARPANET, the initial network experiment in the 1960s was not focused on communication, but rather on optimizing processor usage or time-sharing. This allowed scientists to share computer processing power, which was a significant advancement at a time when big machines called mainframes processed computing tasks one at a time. Time-sharing enabled these machines to handle multiple tasks concurrently, which made their processing power accessible to several scientists at once. As computers became increasingly interconnected, it became apparent that communication between them could be facilitated by further developments.

Let's take a look at some other important concepts that were developed elsewhere. Scientists worldwide were working to solve this problem. In Britain, the National Physical Laboratory developed a commercial network that never really took off due to a lack of funding. However, they did invent packet switching, a method of avoiding network congestion by breaking up data at one end and reassembling it at the other. The French also contributed to the development of the internet. They created a scientific network called CYCLADES, and because of their limited budget, they focused on direct connections between computers instead of using gateway computers. Interestingly, a spin-off of their research was possibly the term "internet."

However, it's up to you whether you choose to believe it or not. Moving on to the early 1970s, computer infrastructure was already quite extensive, but communication was difficult and inconsistent due to the inability of different networks to communicate with each other. This problem was resolved by TCP/IP, which became the fundamental communication language of the internet. It labels data packets and ensures that even if they take different paths, they all arrive at their destination and can be reassembled. Networks began communicating with each other in 1975, which could be considered the start of the internet. Email was also a significant development, as it was created for ARPANET in 1972. In 1976, the majority of internet traffic was email, as academics believed electronic post-it notes were essential. Although communication was getting easier with networks that could talk to each other, it was all text-based and not visually appealing.

During the 1980s, Timothy Berners-Lee, a British scientist, worked with CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, to help manage information for the scientists and make it easier for them to share their work. He created an interface that used HTTP, HTML, and URLs to enable internet browsers, which he called the World Wide Web. Although he didn't invent the internet, he invented the Web, and the first website was created by him at CERN in France in August 1991. After the necessary infrastructure was in place and key technologies were invented, internet message boards gained popularity in the 1980s, phone companies recognized the commercial potential of digital communication, web browsers spread rapidly in the early 1990s, and people discovered email, leading to the rapid expansion and widespread use of the internet by the masses from around 1995.

But wait, didn't US Vice President Al Gore claim to have invented the internet? Well, no. In fact, if you read his actual statements, you'll see that he never made such a claim. However, many people attribute his efforts to promoting legislation that helped to facilitate the spread of the internet. The internet is a tool for communication, which is a fundamental need for humans. It has become an essential part of our lives and is an evolutionary step in our history. Although no one person invented the internet, it was the result of the work of many brilliant scientists from around the world. Today, the internet serves as a means of communication, shopping, research, propaganda, spying, dating, entertainment, and even a way to procrastinate while pretending to work or study (which you may be doing right now). Ultimately, though, the internet is a way for us to communicate and connect with each other, and that can help us become better human beings.