Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet

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Simon and Schuster, Aug 19, 1999 - Social Science - 304 pages
Twenty five years ago, it didn't exist. Today, twenty million people worldwide are surfing the Net. Where Wizards Stay Up Late is the exciting story of the pioneers responsible for creating the most talked about, most influential, and most far-reaching communications breakthrough since the invention of the telephone.
In the 1960's, when computers where regarded as mere giant calculators, J.C.R. Licklider at MIT saw them as the ultimate communications devices. With Defense Department funds, he and a band of visionary computer whizzes began work on a nationwide, interlocking network of computers. Taking readers behind the scenes, Where Wizards Stay Up Late captures the hard work, genius, and happy accidents of their daring, stunningly successful venture.

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Page 35 - tightly, and that the resulting partnership will think as no human brain has ever thought and process data in a way not approached by the information-handling machines we know today.
Page 256 - In the beginning ARPA created the ARPANET. "And the ARPANET was without form and void. "And darkness was upon the deep. "And the spirit of ARPA moved upon the face of the network and ARPA said, 'Let there be a
Page 112 - There was a long silence at the other end of the line. And then
Page 227 - anyone could build a network of any size or form, and as long as that network had a gateway computer that could interpret and route packets, it could communicate with any other network.
Page 38 - Is it not desirable or even necessary for all the centers to agree upon some language or, at least, upon some conventions for asking such questions as 'What language do you
Page 56 - manner, then it follows that we should do those things that make the shade of gray as light as possible: to plan now to minimize potential destruction and to do all those things necessary to permit the survivors of the holocaust to shuck their ashes and reconstruct the economy swiftly.
Page 35 - is that in not too many years, human brains and computing machines will be coupled
Page 79 - added some stones here, and Paul added a few more. If you are not careful, you can con yourself into believing that you did the most important part. But the reality is that each contribution has to follow onto previous work. Everything is tied to everything else.
Page 240 - a frontier environment which would offer advanced communication, collaboration, and the sharing of resources among geographically separated or isolated researchers.
Page 20 - the need for single control in some of our most advanced development projects,

About the author (1999)

Katie Hafner is a technology correspondent at Newsweek and coauthor of Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier. Matthew Lyon and Katie Hafner are married and live in the San Francisco Bay area.

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