francis
12th Apr 2004, 09:28 pm
I think I remember us talking about this in a content management session. It's certainly something that I remember being told, but apparently it's not true: the internet was not designed as a communications system that could be used in the event of a nuclear attack.
I've just read Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0613181530/ref=sr_aps_books_1_3/026-7576415-6158865), and that rumour is put to bed as early as page ten.
It's quite easy to see where the rumour came from. Packet switching development was done, not as part of ARPANET (the first "proper" series of networked computers that formed the basis for the Internet), by Paul Baran who was obsessed by cold war politics and wanted to create a telecommunications system for America that could withstand a nuclear strike. This was done before ARPANET was born and was solely focussed on trying to improve AT&T's phone network. Donald Davies, working independently of Baran in the UK, also developed packet switching, but started working on his almost identical work just at the point Baran was finishing his. Davies had no war agenda, he just wanted to create a better telecommunications network for the UK. Baran called his idea "Hot Potato Routing" and got the credit for the idea. Davies got to rename Baran's idea as Packet Switching, as he had ensured that the word "packet" couldn't be confused with any other computing term, and that it also had international equivalents. The packet switching technology was used in the first ARPANET computers (called IMPs -Interface Message Processors) as the method of moving data around the network - AT&T took years to think it better than their existing system, partly because it was a digital technology and phone systems were still analogue at that time.
The rumour was probably given more strength because the ARPA (Advance Research Projects Agency) was part of the Pentagon in the 1960s.
Anyway, it's a good read if you're interested in finding out about the Internet, and goes well with Tim Berners-Lee's Weaving The Web (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587990180/ref=pd_sim_b_dp_1/026-7576415-6158865).
I've just read Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0613181530/ref=sr_aps_books_1_3/026-7576415-6158865), and that rumour is put to bed as early as page ten.
It's quite easy to see where the rumour came from. Packet switching development was done, not as part of ARPANET (the first "proper" series of networked computers that formed the basis for the Internet), by Paul Baran who was obsessed by cold war politics and wanted to create a telecommunications system for America that could withstand a nuclear strike. This was done before ARPANET was born and was solely focussed on trying to improve AT&T's phone network. Donald Davies, working independently of Baran in the UK, also developed packet switching, but started working on his almost identical work just at the point Baran was finishing his. Davies had no war agenda, he just wanted to create a better telecommunications network for the UK. Baran called his idea "Hot Potato Routing" and got the credit for the idea. Davies got to rename Baran's idea as Packet Switching, as he had ensured that the word "packet" couldn't be confused with any other computing term, and that it also had international equivalents. The packet switching technology was used in the first ARPANET computers (called IMPs -Interface Message Processors) as the method of moving data around the network - AT&T took years to think it better than their existing system, partly because it was a digital technology and phone systems were still analogue at that time.
The rumour was probably given more strength because the ARPA (Advance Research Projects Agency) was part of the Pentagon in the 1960s.
Anyway, it's a good read if you're interested in finding out about the Internet, and goes well with Tim Berners-Lee's Weaving The Web (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587990180/ref=pd_sim_b_dp_1/026-7576415-6158865).