Unlike light bulbs and telephones, the internet does not have a single inventor! 

Rather, it has progressed with time. More than 50 years ago, the internet was developed in the United States as a Cold War government weapon. Scientists and researchers have been using it for years to communicate and share data. We use the internet for almost everything these days, and many people can’t imagine their lives without it.

History

The Soviet Union launched the world’s first man-made satellite into orbit on October 4, 1957. The satellite, known as Sputnik, did not do much: It relayed blips and bleeps from its radio transmitters as it circled the Earth. Nonetheless, the beach-ball-sized Sputnik was proof of something alarming to many Americans: while America’s brightest scientists and engineers were designing bigger cars and better television sets, the Soviets seemed to be focusing on less frivolous things—and they were going to win the Cold War as a result.

Scientists and military experts were particularly concerned about the consequences of a Soviet attack on the country’s telephone system. They feared that a single missile could destroy the entire network of lines and wires that enabled efficient long-distance communication.

J.C.R. Licklider, a scientist from M.I.T. and ARPA, proposed a solution to this problem in 1962: a “galactic network” of computers that could communicate with one another. Even if the Soviets destroyed the telephone system, such a network would allow government leaders to communicate.

Another M.I.T. scientist invented “packet switching” in 1965, a method of sending data from one computer to another. Before sending data to its destination, packet switching divides it into blocks or packets. Each packet can then take its path from point A to point B. The government’s computer network, now known as the ARPAnet, would have been just as vulnerable to enemy attacks as the phone system if it didn’t use packet switching.

Only four computers were connected to the ARPAnet by the end of 1969, but the network grew steadily throughout the 1970s.

It added the ALOHAnet network of the University of Hawaii in 1971, and two years later, it added networks at University College in London and the Royal Radar Establishment in Norway. However, as packet-switched computer networks grew in number, integrating them into a single global “internet” became more difficult.

True, the ARPANET had only four computers connected to it. About half of the world’s population now has internet access, with each person connecting multiple devices to the global network. We’ve come a long way since then.

The Web

The Web established a permanent information resource, which is hosted on computers known as “servers” that are always connected. Suddenly, the internet went from being away for scientists and other important workers to share information to becoming a system that anyone could use.

Tim Berners-Lee, a physicist, created the “hypertext” language on which the web is based to help scientists share their research.

Interesting Facts About Internet

• In 2020, the world’s population was estimated to be 7.7 billion people, with over 35 billion devices connected to the Internet – an average of ten devices per household.
• By 2030, it is expected that there will be over 125 billion Internet-connected devices, with each household owning 15 connected devices on average.
• Mirrors, pillows, bathtub drains, birdhouses, card wallets, and desk mats are among the strangest Internet-connected devices today. We haven’t included any of the more unusual items on this list!
• There are about 258.54 million smart homes in the world right now, and it won’t be long before they’re the norm.
• The average person now spends nearly seven hours per day online.
• Every day, 5.6 billion Google searches are made on the internet! What exactly are all of these people looking for?
• China has the highest Internet usage, with over 854 million users, accounting for nearly a fifth of all Internet users.
• Google is the most popular website on the planet, with YouTube in second place and Facebook in third.
• When you watch a Netflix video or send an email, all of your data is broken down into a zillion tiny data packets. Each of these is sent separately across the internet’s spider’s web and then reassembled on the other end so that the receiver can understand the message.
• The internet is no longer just for people who sit at computers. The Internet of Things (IoT) is now a reality (IoT).

This is a collection of everyday devices with built-in internet connections, such as cars, kitchen appliances, and anything else you can think of. They can communicate with each other and with the rest of the world, allowing your fridge to order more milk when it runs out.

Key Takeaways

The Internet has been dubbed the most significant invention in human history. This global computer network is still in its early stages, but it is already transforming the way we work and live.

You probably wouldn’t be reading this right now if it weren’t for the Internet. How much do you know about when the Internet was created, though? Even if you’re old enough to remember it all, a lot of this incredible story was unknown at the time.

Also published on Medium.