A History of the Modern Internet

Thanks for tuning into this post. To give a quick background on why I’m writing this, I’ve been researching several exciting venture capital sub-sectors over the past few months and have been detailing my findings through a series of blog posts (which you can find here). I’m currently in the process of learning about the blockchain space and thought the best place to start would be the history. In doing so, I realized that it would actually be informative to take a step back and start with the history of the modern internet as there will likely be parallels between the development of the centralized internet and “internet 2.0”. Therefore, this post is dedicated to understanding that history. I hope you enjoy it!

The Intergalactic Computer Network

The best place to start is with J.C.R. Licklider. Licklider was the first Director of the Information Processing Techniques Office (“IPTO”) at the United States Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (“ARPA”). Wow that was a mouthful. He was also the first person to conceptualize the internet. Licklider described his vision for an “Intergalactic Network” of interconnected computers in his 1963 memo to computer scientists, which essentially laid the groundwork for future scientists and practitioners.