Origin Of The Internet
1950 – SAGE
As early as 1950 work began on the defense system know as the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment, or SAGE. This defense system was thought to be required to protect the US mainland from the new Soviet long range bombers and missile carriers such as the Tupolev. IBM, MIT and Bell Labs all worked together to build the SAGE continental air defense network that became operational in 1959.
SAGE became the most advanced network in the world at the time of its creation and consisted of early warning radar systems on land, sea, and even air courtesy of AWACS planes. The network technology lead to more advanced systems and protocols that would one day become the Internet, as well as common hardware items such as the mouse, magnetic memory (tape), computer graphics, and the modem.
1957 - Sputnik, Satellites, and ARPA
In 1957 the USSR launched the first earth-orbiting artificial satellite and kicked off the space race in a big way. The United States, suddenly fearful of Russian space platforms armed with nuclear weapons, needed an agency designed to combat this menace. ARPA, or Advanced Research Projects Agency, was founded in 1958 and was given the mission of making the US the leader in science and technology. In 1972 ARPA was renamed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). As of 1996 the agency is once again called ARPA.
ARPA hired J.C.R. Licklider in 1962 to become the Director of their Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO). Licklider’s works eventually lead to the field of interactive computing, and is the foundation for the field of Computer Science in general. Lickliders work with computer timesharing helped usher in the practical use of the computer network.
1962 – Rise of the Modem and the Conceptual Internet
AT&T released the first commercially available modem, the Bell 103. The modem was the first with full-duplex transmission capability and had a speed of 300 bits per second.
The first real conceptual plan of the Internet was being seen in a series of memos released by J.C.R Licklider where he referred to a “Galactic Network” that connected all users and data in the world. These memos grew from his first paper on the subject Man-Computer Symbiosis released in 1960, although this early work covered human interaction with computers and less about human to human communication. In 1962 the aptly named On-Line Man Computer Communications was released and dealt with the concept of social interaction through computer networks.
Velocity Guide tracks the progress of modern Internet Providers as they continue to improve upon these early foundations of Internet architecture.