On the Chaotic Evolution of Email?

Posted by Cliff on Tuesday January 17, 2006 @11:57AM from the however-it-was-done-at-least-it-still-works dept.

TheCarlMau asks: "I'm doing research on the origins of email in the 70's and 80's. I'm particularly interested in how this technology was designed and implemented without any planned trajectory (ie: nobody sat down in 1970 and planned to create email as we know it today in 2006). As very little has been written on the history, I'm wondering if the Slashdot community could provide any insights, stories, or first-hand experiences? It seems to me, as a person who did not experience this 'revolution,' that the offspring of the ARPANET technology was hackish and sometimes chaotic. What do you think on this matter?"

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What evolution? by redelm · 2006-01-17 12:22 · Score: 4, Interesting

From my 20+ year perspective, there's been remarkably little evolution in any Internet protocol. Mostly devolution to the masses :)
Email was compelling from day one. The technology has changed, but only in details: bangpaths are gone and the abomination of HTML afflicts us. Popularity and exploits are results of the Metcalfe Effect.
But email is still very much email. `ytalk` has morphed into [G]AIM. WWW similarly unchanged although it has seen more technical changes, including a wholesale shift from gopher: