Did DARPA invent the internet? ( Thinking ARPNET and 1966 )
https://www.popsci.com/technology/what-is-darpa/
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Before the internet, electronic communications were routed through telecommunications circuits and switchboards. If a relay between two callers stopped working, the call would end, as there was no other way to sustain the communication link. ARPANET was built as a way to allow computers to share information, but pass it through distributed networks, so that if one node was lost, the chain of communication could continue through another. “By moving packets of data that dynamically worked their way through a network to the destination where they would reassemble themselves, it became possible to avoid losing data even if one or more nodes went down,” describes DARPA. The earliest ARPANET, established in 1969 (it started running in October of that year), was a mostly West Coast affair. It connected nodes at University of California, Santa Barbara; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Utah; and Stanford Research Institute. By September 1971 it had reached the East Coast, and was a continent-spanning network connecting military bases, labs, and universities by the late 1970s, all sending communication over telephone lines. Two other key innovations made ARPANET a durable template for the internet. The first was commissioning the first production of traffic routers to serve as relay points for these packets. (Modern wireless routers are a distant descendant of this earlier wired technology.) Another was setting up universal protocols for transmission and function, allowing products and computers made by different companies to share a communication language and form. The formal ARPANET was decommissioned in 1988, thanks in part to redundancy with the then-new internet. It had demonstrated that computer communications could work across great distances, through distributed networks. This became a template for other communications technologies pursued by the United States, like mesh networks and satellite constellations, all designed to ensure that sending signals is hard to disrupt. “At a time when computers were still stuffed with vacuum tubes, the Arpanauts understood that these machines were much more than computational devices. They were destined to become the most powerful communications tools in history,” wrote Phil Patton for Popular Science in 1995....
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So… I personally recall using dial up modems in the early 1980’s to log into the Real Estate info of the MLS as a young real estate agent in the San Fernando valley. And then selling computers in West LA and South Bay in the mid 1980’s. I was well aware of the benefits of telecommunications and networks early on. Even carried a 2nd generation of cell phone that was a big Mobera brick phone with about 3 amps of power on the long whip antenna. I had a cyst removed from my back just above that phone & antenna were worn for a long time. Now I’ve used almost all types of phones and wireless devices.
Most recently I worry about my modern 5G phone that heats up my hand if I use it too much. I’d never stick my hand into the Microwave but let it cook as I scroll. Heck yeah. (I’ll have to check myself on this logic.)
Long and short of it, this technology is a blessing and a curse. It kills small businesses and the middle class as too many people just use Amazon. Commercial spaces around the city and town are sitting vacant and you and your neighbors need Jobs.
When Commercial space is underused like it is today, how long until this hurts the whole of the Real Estate market. When the Addiction to the Cell Phone makes your hand and head heat up from radiations, are we also going to have more health side effects?
So, There are problems economically to our community and physically to your body individually.
Be aware that the Internet and Cell phone has it’s place. But go out to the Farmers market and set down your phone. Go out to the small shops around you and give the Internet and the Cell phone a rest.
Use the local Ace Hardware or dress shop instead of Walmart or Home Depot. And same for Amazon.
Help your local economy. Spread out your purchases. Just a little bit will help.
And enjoy that Smile from a Live Salesperson!
Your quality of Life will improve.
That’s my 2 cents. Have a lovely Day.
KBL
