Here is an authentic video I found on www.snopes.com made on 1969 predicting the internet in the future and what it would be like.
Brief History of internet
The concept of data communication where you're transmitting data between two different places through an electromagnetic medium e.g. radio waves or an electric wire predates the introduction of the first computers.
These communication systems typically were limited to point to point communication between two end devices for example Telegraph Systems, Telex and Radios and these machines can be considered early precursors of this kind of communication.
Prior to the electrical telegraph, nearly all information was limited to traveling at the speed of a human or animal. The telegraph freed communication from the constraints of space and time and revolutionized the global economy and society. Before Telegraphy, a letter by post from London took 12 days to reach New York and 73 days to get to Sydney.
Development of electronic computers in the 1950s enabled conceptual beginning of networked computers. Initial concepts of packet networking originated in several computer science laboratories in the United States, Great Britain, and France. The US Department of Defense awarded contracts as early as the 1960s for packet network systems, including the development of the ARPANET- which would become the first network to use the Internet Protocol.
In 1962 a nuclear confrontation seemed imminent between United States (US) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) who were embroiled in the Cuban missile crisis. Both the US and the USSR were in the process of building hair-trigger nuclear ballistic missile systems. Each country pondered post-nuclear attack scenarios.
The US considered ways to communicate in the aftermath of a nuclear attack. How could any sort of "command and control network" survive? Researchers at think tanks offered a solution: design a more robust communications network using "redundancy" and "digital" technology.
Centralized network.
Distributed network.
The vision of a decentralized network of different types of "host" computers, without any central switchboard, designed to operate even if parts of it were destroyed. The network would consist of several "nodes," each equal in authority, each capable of sending and receiving pieces of data. This method of "packet switching" is a rapid store-and-forward design. When a node receives a packet it stores it, determines the best route to its destination, and sends it to the next node on that path. If there was a problem with a node (or if it had been destroyed) packets would simply be routed around it.
Today, with the emergence of mobile communication, it wouldn’t be difficult to send a live video stream from their mobile phone to someone else on the complete other side of the planet, in almost real-time. That would seem like science fiction less than 75 years ago. The magic of how that happens remains in the mystical realm for most people. Information & Communications Technology is a relatively new commercialized technology that us earthlings now have access to.
technology that us earthlings now have access to.
The Internet has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before. The invention of the telegraph, telephone, radio, and computer set the stage for this unprecedented integration of capabilities. The Internet is at once a world-wide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for geographic location. The Internet represents one of the most successful examples of the benefits of research and development of information infrastructure.
The historical and scientific achievements of its growth, acceptance and adoption is a beacon of hope for the human race. It ushers in a new era of understanding and hope for all people to be united and share our gifts with each other and the larger universe.
Below are some images & maps presenting evolution of the Internet:
Summary
In the very early days of the internet, it was theorized that internet usage & adoption would come in 3 phases or waves.
The First wave was the predominantly “fixed Internet”, which is really what we mostly thought about back in the 1990s, connected about a billion users to the Internet, primarily via their desktops. The main focus was on establishing the first web properties, and the early commercialization of the internet including online transactions and e-commerce, and gave birth to some of the biggest brands online like Amazon and Pay-Pal. Web Search Engines, like Excite, Lycos and HotBot & Web Directories like Yahoo were birthed.
In about nearing the 2000s, we had the Second Wave, which connected about two billion people to the Internet via their mobile devices. Now that online search had matured a bit and people became much more connected geographically due to broad adoption of email, and instant messaging services and other space opened up which became known as social networking. The search revolution has nurtured in a new era of social communities and people started interacting and connecting more now than ever before.
What we’re talking about now with the emergence of the Third Wave in about 2010 onwards, is connecting about 20 billion or more things to the Internet in the course of the next decade. Another important theme is the upsurge of online education. Thankfully the first and second wave had set the conditions for the mass adoption of excellent knowledge and training resources. This is very exciting because very soon any person or child in the world, will have access to university level education for free. This will transform the world as we know it and there won’t be any barrier to entry for passionate people who are interested in learning about a specific field of learning or research. People will finally have equal access to education and this will transform planet earth in the most astonishing ways. Imagine a world without Google or E-Mail or Facebook? Well soon the internet ecosystem is going to grow beyond anybody’s wildest imagination, and set up humankind to reach new levels of peace, prosperity and enlightenment.
References
Wikipedia Net History
[Thanks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraphy - Wiki Telegraphy)
RAND Corp. Origins of internet Images
Wikimedia Internet Map
WikiMedia - Stamps of Azerbaijan
WikiMedia Submarine Cables Map
NetValley - Atlantic cable of 1858 image
CableMap - 2015 Submarine Cable Map
WikiPedia – Tier 1-3 Networks
Robert Bernhardt
Wikipedia Internet users by language
monkey to Net joke?
Evolution of the web technologies
Infographic History of Internet
Telegraph
Airline Tele-Dial Radio
Telex
Internet Minute
I hope my fellow Steemians enjoy this article - I wrote it a couple of years ago - I would like to use it as a foundation to further discuss the internet and the application of the internet: the web!
