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> For all intents and purposes the Internet was created by and for US military not for public utility, and one of the main reasons for its creation, if not the
by throw0101a 2y ago
> For all intents and purposes the Internet was created by and for US military not for public utility, and one of the main reasons for its creation, if not the sole reason, is to be able to withstand large scale nuclear attack.
And yet Charles M. Herzfeld (who was ARPA director at the time) and Robert Taylor (who was in charge of getting ARPAnet going) say otherwise: it was to link computing centres across the country so that resources could be shared and collaboration would be easier.
If Herzfeld and Taylor didn't know why ARPA created ARPAnet then who else would?
The entire linked to article is about tracing the source of the "able to withstand large scale nuclear attack" original story myth:
> However, the documentation is voluminous and the people who were in the room have all given a consistent story about how it was to build a network for time-sharing of expensive computers and better collaboration.
- teleforce 2y agoInterestingly Charles M. Herzfeld once chaired the Nuclear Weapons Council and the Intelligence R&D Council. According to Wikipedia, apparently "Taylor had convinced ARPA director Charles M. Herzfeld to fund a network project earlier in February 1966, and Herzfeld transferred a million dollars from a ballistic missile defense program to Taylor's budget". This budget probably equivalent to tens of millions USD in today's money. The narrative "to link computing centres across the country so that resources could be shared and collaboration would be easier" using a large chunk of budget from ballistic missile systems that could carry nuclear warheads that were distributed across the country does not make sense to me.