It began life under the name ARPANet in 1969. It was born in the U.S.A., created in the midst of the Cold War by the government as a strategic mechanism that would provide for the emission and reception of electronic communication signals in the event of a world catastrophe. Commissioned by the Department of Defense, four computers called nodes were connected using modems, telephone wires and satellites, one each at UCLA, UCSB, Stanford and University of Utah. ARPANet stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. Its purpose was to share information and results of research among the various scientists involved in Department of Defense projects. Each node was specifically designed io be independent of the others in case of that aforementioned world catastrophe.
Read the rest of this entry »