The Internetz

When the Internet was first developed over 40 years ago for the mere purpose of communicating, I don’t think there was anyone who could have begun to imagine the possibilities of it besides a few science fiction authors here and there. If humanity have learned anything at all in the last century, it’s that the future always spirals out in ways beyond their ability to predict and imagine, and the development and subsequent expansion of the World Wide Web is no exception to that rule.

However, if I had to choose Between Licklider, Tomlinson, and and Tim Berners-Lee, I would say that only J. C. R. Licklider had any inkling of what was to come in the future. Although he did not program, it was his ideas and foretelling of digital-click interface, online banking, and various e-commerce hypotheses that turned him into a visionary among those who were short sighted, and hence it is certainly no wonder that he was called the Johnny Appleseed of the computer world during his lifetime. Ray Tomlinson gave us e-mail and Berners-Lee gave us websites, but where would any of that be without the prophecies of Licklider? No where I say, and that is the fact of the matter!

Despite such vision though, today’s Internet is still quite different from anything Licklider could have imagined. Much like Congress, he was one who thought the Internet would be exclusively and ultimately a medium of exchanging information in some way or another, when in today’s world the Internet has literally wormed its way into everything from entertainment to business deals and singlehandedly has changed how people interact with the world as we have come to know it. Already the baby boomer generation, those who lead corporations and the government and are nestled in all sorts of institutions, have become nearly irrelevant…and the oldest of the Net Generation aren’t even 32 yet!

Ultimately the Internet has far surpassed the expectations of those who originally beget it. Countless people use the Internet not to gather information, but to merely listen to a song they like or customize a web journal or to buy the latest New York Times bestseller without having to get up and drive to the bookstore, and countless more make use of their network knowledge to obtain everything from films to music without paying a cent to the industries of their origin.

We are, and have been for a long time now, on the brink of something that is redefining everything, and I am glad to be part of it for better…or for worse.