Katie Hafner

Where Wizards Stay Up Late

1. IDEA 1

   The internet began as ARPANET

   Hafner and Lyon tell the story of ARPANET, the computer network built in the late 1960s with funding from a US defence research agency. It became the foundation of the internet.

2. IDEA 2

   A visionary imagined networks

   The authors describe J. C. R. Licklider, who imagined computers connected in a network to help people think and work together. His ideas inspired others. He saw machines as partners that could extend human thinking, not just count numbers.

3. IDEA 3

   Messages travel in packets

   The authors explain packet switching, in which messages are broken into small pieces that travel separately and are reassembled. This made networks efficient and robust. If one piece is lost, only that piece needs to be sent again.

All 8 ideas from Where Wizards Stay Up Late →