Inventing the Internet

What Hacker News says

1. throw0101bMay 2023
   For the invention and early history of the ARPAnet and Internet I highly recommend Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet:

   * https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/281818

   Inventing the Internet is also pretty good:

   * https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/753865.Inventing_the_Int...

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2. ripley12Dec 2019
   I read it a couple years ago. Quite good, but I still think Janet Abbate’s Inventing the Internet is better (more technical detail, better analysis of the political conflicts that led to the internet in its current form).
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3. dedalusJul 2018
   Inventing the Internet (https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/inventing-internet) is a fantastic place to start

   Innovations in Internetworking (https://www.amazon.com/Innovations-Internetworking-Artech-Te...) is a great collection of papers that help you understand the original thinking behind each protocol

   The Elements of Networking Style (https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Networking-Style-Animadversi...) explains why you see only 4 layers in the real Internet while ISO slices it into 7 and all the fun parts os standard bodies while retaining a unique sense of satire

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4. KinnardNov 2015
   The question is almost too broad to respond to. 'a blockchain-driven internet' . . . there are so many things that could mean.

   My expectation is that we will see blockchains taking up role somewhere between servers and databases.

   I recommend Janet Abbate's "Inventing the Internet". You will feel like a prophet after reading it.

   I think you could call it an Internet of blockchains rather than 'a blockchain-driven internet'. But the blockchain really is a Pandora's box . . .

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5. mjnAug 2013
   The government role in the internet was considerably deeper than just funding the early protocol work, though it was definitely not the only player. It's a fairly good example of the public/private innovation networks thesis the book being reviewed here is arguing for. Abbate's book Inventing the Internet (MIT Press, 1999) has a pretty good account of all the various players and how they related.
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6. nathan_longJul 2012
   The article's focus is on the internet itself, which is the "inter-network" - the interoperation of individual networks. The first of these networks was ARPANET, which was developed by contractors by the request and under the management of ARPA (since renamed DARPA). ARPA proposed ARPANET in 1968. So the government's pioneering work in networking goes back further than this article discusses.

   There is a complex history here; lots of people built on each other's work, inside and outside the US government and around the world. But it's silly to claim the US government gets no credit.

   Of course, the government is always full of conflicting opinions. ARPA's funding of something so speculative and not specifically for military application had to be finessed and described in military terms to satisfy some congress members. But ARPA itself was created with the mission of advanced research after the Russians beat us into space with Sputnik, so computer networking was really quite well within its mission.

   If anyone wants to learn more about this history, I recommend "Inventing the Internet" and "Where Wizards Stay Up Late." The former is a bit more academic and technical, but still easy to read, and the latter is a bit more focused on the people involved.

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