Sunday's LTAR

["A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@world.std.com>]

I've been meaning for a couple of days to get this off my chest.  On 
Sunday's LTAR, Donna made a couple of wisecracks of the "Al Gore invented 
the Internet" variety.  This is a perfect example of how a story takes on 
a life of its own, regardless of reality.

Al Gore did not claim to have "invented" the Internet.  He said something 
along the lines of "When I was in Congress, I took the initiative in 
creating the Internet."  Republicans pounced on that and said that the 
Internet began in 1969, when Gore was still in college.

Well, the ARPAnet of the 1970s was a far cry from the Internet as we know 
it today.  To say that the Internet was started in 1969 is like saying 
that the KDKA broadcast in 1920 was the start of television.

The fact of the matter is, Al Gore, when he was in Congress, DID take a 
leadership role in creating the Internet as we now know it out of the old 
ARPAnet.  He didn't "invent" the Internet, but he never said that he did.

If you want to see who invented the Internet, read the science fiction 
short story "A Logic Named Joe" by Murray Leinster.  Published in the 
March 1946 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, it does a pretty good job 
of depicting the Internet as we know it today.  Not exactly, of course.  
It's imagination, not prophecy.  But it's remarkably close.  The story has 
been reprinted in anthologies and can probably be found in most libraries.


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 A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                                 617.367.0468
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