The Dawn of the Internet

A nondescript silver delivery van—equipped with a wireless transmitter and carrying a small group of starry-eyed engineers—cruised along the streets of San Francisco. It was November 1977, a time when road trippers used cumbersome foldout paper maps and connecting with a friend meant calling a home phone or sending a snail mail letter. But a transmission sent from inside that van was about to prove that what we now call the internet was possible.

Driving down the road, the van transmitted a message that bounced from California to Boston to Norway to Great Britain, and then back to California through a small town in West Virginia. The message showed that multiple computers in locations around the world could communicate with one another.

Another six years passed, as computer scientists and engineers perfected the ability of computers to send data from one computer to another over telephone lines. In the meantime, personal computers, which were mainly used for their games, word processors, spreadsheets, and data storage, began gaining in popularity.

Then, after much research and careful planning, on January 1, 1983, computer scientists adopted a set of rules that would become the fundamental architecture of the internet. In technical terms, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) made it possible for computers on different networks to “talk” to each other.

An ordinary silver delivery van cruised along the streets of San Francisco. It was equipped with a wireless transmitter and carrying a small group of starry-eyed engineers. It was November 1977. In those days, road trippers used cumbersome foldout paper maps. Connecting with a friend meant calling a home phone or sending a snail mail letter. But a transmission sent from inside that van was about to prove that what we now call the internet was possible.

The van transmitted a message that bounced from California to Boston to Norway to Great Britain, and then back to California through a small town in West Virginia. The message showed that multiple computers in locations around the world could communicate with one another.

Another six years passed. Computer scientists and engineers slowly perfected the ability of computers to send data from one computer to another over telephone lines. In the meantime, personal computers, which were mainly used for their games, word processors, spreadsheets, and data storage, began gaining in popularity.

Then on January 1, 1983, computer scientists adopted a set of rules that would become the fundamental structure of the internet. In technical terms, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) made it possible for computers on different networks to “talk” to each other.

This date, 40 years ago, is widely considered the birthday of the internet, the information gateway that has become the fabric of modern society, both for better and for worse.

Today we live in a world largely shaped by the internet. Instead of flipping the pages of an encyclopedia, we search for instant answers on Google. Instead of driving to the shopping mall, we order our clothes online. Instead of thumbtacking a note on a community bulletin board, we post on social media. The internet brought all these changes and more, ushering in the information age and fundamentally altering the ways we live, work, and connect.

“We’ve created a magical way of connecting things together,” says University of Michigan computer scientist Charles Severance, who teaches a course on the history of the internet. “And we can thank a lot of really smart computer scientists, software developers, and investors for that.”

This date, 40 years ago, is widely considered the birthday of the internet. For better and for worse, this information gateway has become the fabric of modern society.

Today we live in a world largely shaped by the internet. Instead of flipping the pages of an encyclopedia, we search for instant answers on Google. Instead of driving to the shopping mall, we order our clothes online. Instead of thumbtacking a note on a community bulletin board, we post on social media. The internet brought all these changes and more. It’s ushered in the information age and fundamentally altered the ways we live, work, and connect.

“We’ve created a magical way of connecting things together,” says University of Michigan computer scientist Charles Severance, who teaches a course on the history of the internet. “And we can thank a lot of really smart computer scientists, software developers, and investors for that.”

The U.S. government funded the first all-electronic computer for general purposes in the early 1940s during World War II. At 1,800 square feet and weighing in at more than 27 tons, the computer, known as ENIAC, filled a 30-by-50 foot room. Its purpose was to help the U.S. Army calculate the trajectories of explosive shells, a task that had previously taken humans days. The first programmers were women (see “The ENIAC Six,” below).

Over the next two decades, computers remained primarily a tool for solving complex math problems. In the 1960s, the U.S. Department of Defense planted the first seeds of the internet when it created the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, or ARPANET. The initial purpose of the experimental computer network was to link computers over telephone lines, allowing them to share information.

In October 1969, ARPANET transmitted the first “node-to-node” message from one computer to another. It was just two letters long.

UCLA computer science professor Leonard Kleinrock and his student Charley Kline sent the transmission from a computer at the University of California, Los Angeles, to one at Stanford Research Institute through ARPANET. Each computer was the size of a small house. According to Kleinrock, they intended to transmit the word “login”—but the system crashed after sending the first two letters.

“Hence, the first message on the internet was ‘lo’—as in ‘Lo and behold!’” Kleinrock says. “We didn’t plan it, but we couldn’t have come up with a better message: succinct, powerful, and prophetic.”

The U.S. government funded the first all-electronic computer for general purposes in the early 1940s during World War II. The computer, known as ENIAC, was 1,800 square feet and weighed more than 27 tons. It filled a 30-by-50 foot room. Its purpose was to help the U.S. Army calculate the trajectories of explosive shells. Previously, that task had taken humans days. The first programmers were women (see “The ENIAC Six,” below).

Over the next two decades, computers remained primarily a tool for solving complex math problems. In the 1960s, the U.S. Department of Defense planted the first seeds of the internet when it created the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, or ARPANET. The initial purpose of the experimental computer network was to link computers over telephone lines, allowing them to share information.

In October 1969, ARPANET transmitted the first “node-to-node” message from one computer to another. It was just two letters long.

UCLA computer science professor Leonard Kleinrock and his student Charley Kline sent the transmission from a computer at the University of California, Los Angeles, to one at Stanford Research Institute through ARPANET. Each computer was the size of a small house. According to Kleinrock, they intended to transmit the word “login.” But the system crashed after sending the first two letters.

“Hence, the first message on the internet was ‘lo’—as in ‘Lo and behold!’” Kleinrock says. “We didn’t plan it, but we couldn’t have come up with a better message: succinct, powerful, and prophetic.”

When two computers communicate, it’s a network. When three or more do, it’s the internet. Personal computers small enough to fit on a desk at home first became available in the 1970s. Users could play simple games, type school papers, or run basic programs­—but sharing data was difficult and often required physically handing someone a disk.

But that began to change with the birth of the internet in 1983, thanks to the set of rules that allowed computers to communicate with each other over different networks. Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn, two computer scientists who previously worked together on ARPANET, created the set of rules that built the internet.

Widely known as the “fathers of the internet,” Cerf and Kahn believed anyone should be able to build a piece of the network and no single person or entity should own it. It was a philosophy that had monumental implications for the world because it meant that the internet would develop from the ground up, that it would morph in ways that would dramatically change society, driven by a human desire to connect, share information, and influence others.

“We said we’re not going to patent it, we’re not going to control it,” Cerf said in an interview with Wired. “We’re going to release it to the world as soon as it’s available, which we did.”

When two computers communicate, it’s a network. When three or more do, it’s the internet. Personal computers small enough to fit on a desk at home first became available in the 1970s. Users could play simple games, type school papers, or run basic programs—but sharing data was difficult and often required physically handing someone a disk.

But that began to change with the birth of the internet in 1983. That’s because a set of rules allowed computers to communicate with each other over different networks. Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn were two computer scientists who previously worked together on ARPANET. They created the rules that built the internet.

Cerf and Kahn are widely known as the “fathers of the internet.” They believed anyone should be able to build a piece of the network and no single person or entity should own it. It was a philosophy that had monumental implications for the world because it meant that the internet would develop from the ground up. It let the internet morph in ways that would dramatically change society, driven by a human desire to connect, share information, and influence others.

“We said we’re not going to patent it, we’re not going to control it,” Cerf said in an interview with Wired. “We’re going to release it to the world as soon as it’s available, which we did.”

After its release into the wild, universities took some of the important early steps. By the late 1980s, hardware makers were selling routers to colleges so they could build up their networks for research purposes. In 1991, the World Wide Web—a system of public webpages accessible through the internet—made its public debut. That same year, the first websites went live (see timeline slideshow, below).

The internet didn’t explode overnight. It took about a decade for the new technology to enter mainstream media, and it happened quietly. News outlets such as The New York Times began writing of a “data superhighway” that would change every element of modern life.

“The primitive version of the data superhighway known as the Internet has already become a way of life for some students, teachers, researchers, government officials, office workers and executives,” John Markoff wrote in a 1993 New York Times article. “It foretells the coming of a world in which virtually all aspects of modern life, from shopping to making medical diagnoses, will take place electronically.”

That prediction proved accurate. In the later part of the decade, search engines evolved, with Google making it easier to access information from websites starting in 1998. Then social media began taking off around 2004 with the creation of Facebook.com by students, including Mark Zuckerberg, at Harvard University.

After its release into the wild, universities took some of the important early steps. By the late 1980s, hardware makers were selling routers to colleges so they could build up their networks for research purposes. In 1991, the World Wide Web, a system of public webpages accessible through the internet, made its public debut. That same year, the first websites went live (see timeline slideshow, below).

The internet didn’t explode overnight. It took about a decade for the new technology to enter mainstream media. It happened quietly. News outlets such as The New York Times began writing of a “data superhighway” that would change every element of modern life.

“The primitive version of the data superhighway known as the Internet has already become a way of life for some students, teachers, researchers, government officials, office workers and executives,” John Markoff wrote in a 1993 New York Times article. “It foretells the coming of a world in which virtually all aspects of modern life, from shopping to making medical diagnoses, will take place electronically.”

That prediction proved accurate. In the later part of the decade, search engines evolved. Starting in 1998, Google made it easier to access information from websites. In 2004, Facebook.com was created by Harvard University students, including Mark Zuckerberg. That’s when social media began taking off.

Today, 40 years after the world officially adopted the rules that built the internet, it’s hard to imagine life without it. The internet has shaped everything from medicine, banking, and space exploration to entertainment, exercise, and dating. Governments depend on it to function, small-business owners around the world use it to reach customers, and during the Covid pandemic, schools were able to keep going because of it.

It has fostered political movements against repressive governments, such as the Arab Spring—a series of pro-democracy protests and demonstrations across the Middle East beginning in 2010—during which protesters used social media to organize demonstrations and raise awareness.

“We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world,” Egyptian activist Fawaz Rashed wrote on Twitter in March 2011.

But the proliferation of the internet has had downsides. Cyberbullying and the spread of misinformation have exploded. And some studies show that people who spend a lot of time on the internet and social media experience more feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and depression.

Computer scientist Severance says it’s not the internet itself that’s inherently good or bad, but how people choose to spend their time on the internet—and what they choose to do and create with it.

“There are a lot of great things about the internet and a lot of bad things about the internet,” Severance says, “but honestly, there were great things and bad things about human beings before the internet. The internet just made the great things easier and the bad things easier.”

The internet has evolved rapidly in just 40 years, and futurist Ian Khan says it’s hard to say what it will look like 40 years down the road. After all, it’s growing superfast and in many different directions.

“[Forty years] is such a long time ahead,” Khan says. “We’re no longer doing linear growth in the development of the internet—it’s growing exponentially, and different technologies are coming together to really create a future where we don’t know where it’s headed.”

It’s been 40 years since the world officially adopted the rules that built the internet. Now it’s hard to imagine life without it. The internet has shaped everything from medicine, banking, and space exploration to entertainment, exercise, and dating. Governments depend on it to function. Small-business owners around the world use it to reach customers. And during the Covid pandemic, schools were able to keep going because of it.

It has fostered political movements against repressive governments, such as the Arab Spring, a series of pro-democracy protests and demonstrations across the Middle East beginning in 2010. Protesters used social media to organize demonstrations and raise awareness.

“We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world,” Egyptian activist Fawaz Rashed wrote on Twitter in March 2011.

But the growth of the internet has had downsides. Cyberbullying and the spread of misinformation have exploded. And some studies show that people who spend a lot of time on the internet and social media experience more feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and depression.

Computer scientist Severance says it’s not the internet itself that’s inherently good or bad. It’s how people choose to spend their time on the internet and what they choose to do and create with it.

“There are a lot of great things about the internet and a lot of bad things about the internet,” Severance says, “but honestly, there were great things and bad things about human beings before the internet. The internet just made the great things easier and the bad things easier.”

The internet has evolved rapidly in just 40 years. Futurist Ian Khan says it’s hard to say what it will look like 40 years down the road. After all, it’s growing superfast and in many different directions.

“[Forty years] is such a long time ahead,” Khan says. “We’re no longer doing linear growth in the development of the internet—it’s growing exponentially, and different technologies are coming together to really create a future where we don’t know where it’s headed.”