JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

[Source: An Atlas of Cyberspace. See also Mappa Mundi for a good article on the 1980 version of this map, here.]

I can feel the enormous hail coming down on me right now for this title–but by comparison, this 1981 map of ARPAnet must seem somewhat like the first three minutes of creation in the Big Bang saga, in its way.  This was absolutely, positively a remarkable accomplishment for the time, but compared to what it would become–measured in any number of different ways–this map seems proto-historic.  Compared to not being able to construct this map because there was no ARPAnet–well, that would have been a devastating thing. 

The other thing about looking at the picture of the birth of something was that–unlike many other revolutionary creations–there were many people of high influence who saw the possibilities of the expansion of the thing.  Even Graham Bell and Edison had a difficult time looking into the future of the telephone…