We have the Russians to thank for the existence of the Internet. It all started with the launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957. The Sputnik Program was a series of missions by the Soviet Union to test artificial satellites in earth orbit. The launch terrified the United States. It wasn’t just the fact that the Soviets were winning the space race with the first satellite; Sputnik 1 was deployed by a modified version of the R-7 Semyorka rocket. This was the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile designed for launching nuclear warheads. You could see the Sputnik satellite flying above in space with the naked eye. I’m sure that more than a few Americans imagined that a nuclear warhead could one day be the payload on it’s way to decimate one of their cities.

Americans realized that they were being complacent by allowing the Soviets a technological lead. They responded with their own satellite launches rushed ahead of schedule to show the world their own technological prowess. The U.S. government also allocated large amounts money towards scientific research and education. This lead to the creation of NASA and the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). ARPA later became known as the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). They created computer networking technologies starting with ARPANET which eventually lead to the development of the Internet as we know it today.

April 7, 1969 is regarded as a significant date because this is when the first request for comment (RFC) documents on Internet technology was published. RFC’s are used for proposing new ideas and publicly presenting them for evaluation by engineers and the scientific community.

It’s amazing how politics influences science. For instance, Americans haven’t been back to the Moon since the 1970’s. There was no real interest in it by the public or the government. America won the space race against the Soviets so there wasn’t an incentive to compete anymore. That is, not until China recently announced their ambitions on going to the Moon. Now, once again America has “moon fever” and is planning on launching a manned mission between 2015 and 2020.

We need to think of a way to use politics to advance computer technology.

Tweet This Post!

Related posts:
	The Super Highway Traffic Jam Free As In Internet Freedom Periodic Table of the Internet Upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 Today

Share this post:

               

Follow Me:

Did you find this post interesting and useful? You can keep up to date on this blog by subscribing to my RSS feed, or you can have new posts sent to you by e-mail. You can also follow me on Twitter.

No Comments »

Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed