DARPA: The Dawn of the Web
Our class readings for Thursday consisted of:
- Cohen and Rosenzweig’s Digital History
- Ted Nelson’s “Complex Information Processing”
- And the YouTube video –History of the Internet
As the title states, the video describes the history of the web beginning with the functions and processing abilities of the very first computers before any sort of network connection even existed. Programming was done with punch cards like the ones handed out in class and took a tremendous amount of trial and error as well as time. During the Cold War, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) planned a large scale computer network to disintermediate communication and prevent the Soviet’s from advancing more quickly, this became the ARPANET. Three other concepts key to the internet also emerged at this time:
- The American RAND Corporation developed the concept of a military network
- The British NPL (National Physical Laboratory) developed the concept of a commercial network
- The French CYCLADES (Institut de Recherche d’Informatique et d’Automatique) developed the concept of a scientific network
It is interesting to consider that despite how basic these primitive networks were, the essential content of the internet remains the same: Military material, Commercial material, and Educational material. It is also interesting to consider that without the fear of the Soviets during the Cold War, the push to create the technology that is now fully integrated into almost every aspect of life would not have been so dire. I can only wonder where technology would be now without the initial need for an alternative communication network in the event of a nuclear attack.
Continuing the development of my final project topic, I believe I have narrowed down my question to discovering exactly how innovative the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright in the Usonian Homes such as the Pope-Leighey House were and how significantly they have impacted modern designs.
