ARPANET: The Foundation of the Internet

Although we learned about the Internet as a creation of the 80s/90s technological revolution, the truth is that the foundations of the Internet were being laid almost three decades before it even reached the public, through the creation of what was known as the ARPANET.

The ARPANET, or Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, was a project initially funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) within the US's Department of Defense. I won't go into too much technical detail, but the basic concept of the ARPANET that made it different from previous forms of communication technology was the way in which communication links were formed. The previous method of connection was a simple link that ran from one transmitter to one receiver, through a process called circuit switching. The ARPANET, however, developed what was called packet switching, which essentially allowed one link to connect to multiple receivers and transmitters at one time.

The history of the ARPANET traces back to 1963, when computer scientist J. C. R. Licklider formulated the basic concept of an "Intergalactic Computer Network". Licklider was hired by ARPA, where he transferred responsibility of the project over to fellow ARPA scientists Bob Taylor and Ivan Sutherland. The two then amassed a team of scientists from all over the world, and, funded by the Department of Defense, began work on the ARPANET.

Although most computer scientist companies regarded the concept as ridiculous and impossible, but eventually found awarded the contract to build the ARPANET to Bolt, Beranek and Newman Inc., the company J. C. R. Licklider had originally worked for when he came up with the idea. With a team of only seven people, they developed Interface Message Processors (IMPs), which were essentially the early version of modern-day routers. The company worked for nine months, and, in the beginning of 1970, had a functioning system that allowed one computer in Utah to connect with three in California at the same time, something that had never been done before. In 1975, the system was officially declared operational, and by 1981, 213 computers were connected through the ARPANET.

The ARPANET continued to connect computers through a single system up until 1990, when the project was shut down for good. However, while the ARPANET simply remains a part of history today, it's impossible to overlook the impact it had on modern Internet. It was the first application of many of its basic properties, and laid the foundation for what would come to be argued as one of the greatest technological advancements in human history.