This question is addressed in the book "The Innovators" -- https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Hackers-Geniuses-Created-Revolution/dp/1476708703/ https://www.amaz

This question is addressed in the book "The Innovators" -- https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Hackers-Geniuses-Created-Revolution/dp/1476708703/ https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Hackers-Geniuses-Created-R... -- and it's posed something like this: was the internet invented by DARPA researchers who wanted a nuclear-proof communication system which could dynamically route around broken/gone segments of the internet, or by a groups of academic-based hackers at universities around the country? The answer is... both. Yes, DARPA wanted a self-repairing communications network but the computer hackers at MIT, Harvard, Utah, and the Bay Area would have likely produced something very similar without government being involved. One interesting legacy from the DARPA funding is the RFC nomenclature: the students designing TCP/IP couldn't "specify" anything without risking their funding, so a public "Request For Comment" was a way to publish how they were implementing things -- and how others would need to do it also if they wanted to be compatible.