RE: Sunday's LTAR

["Larry A. Lovering" <lloverin@bbnplanet.com>]

The facts are, that much of the underpinnings of the Internet were invented
here, in Cambridge, at Bolt, Berenek & Newman (BBN), now GTE
Internetworking.  The original "routing computers", the "@" in the emails,
all were BBN contributions.  When I was in Los Angeles last year, banners
promoting "invented here" themes also claim that the Internet was born
there.  Not entirely, although Stanford was one of the first nodes on the
ARPAnet.  See http://www.bbn.com/roles/researcher/timeline/ for a concise
picture of the beginnings of the Internet.

-Larry

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
> [mailto:owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org]On Behalf Of A.
> Joseph Ross
> Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 1999 12:45 AM
> To: boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
> Subject: Sunday's LTAR
>
>
> 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.
>
>
> ==================================================================
>  A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                                 617.367.0468
>  15 Court Square                             lawyer@world.std.com
>  Boston, MA 02108-2503              http://world.std.com/~lawyer/
> ==================================================================
>