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Celebrating The Origins of Packet Switching

Posted by timothy on from the let's-meet-up-at-the-next-node dept.

XaN-ASMoDi writes with an interesting historical piece at the BBC on the early history of packet switching, excerpting: "It has often been said that change is the only constant in the 21st Century. And there is little doubt that the restless tone of these times is something that the web has helped to accelerate, but the only reason that [...] the web can cope with that punishing pace is thanks to work done four decades ago by British mathematician Donald Davies at the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL). On 5 August 1968 Dr Davies gave the first public presentation of work he had been doing on a method of moving data around computer networks called 'packet switching.'"

6 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. All times by Ian+Alexander · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It has often been said that change is the only constant in the 21st Century.

    I've never heard that applied specifically to the 21st century. It's an oddly-specific use of the phrase: does that imply that change has not been constant in other times? Empires grow and fall, cultures collapse or are swept away or conquered by the next Big Empire, customs change, ethnic identities change, etc etc. The only unique thing about the 21st century is that we've inherited a tradition of rapid technological change. Technology is important but it's hardly the only thing that changes over time and it strikes me as fairly myopic to single out the 21st century as a time of change.

    1. Re:All times by Jurily · · Score: 2, Insightful

      does that imply that change has not been constant in other times?

      Actually, it's an inherent property of the universe. You know, quantum physics and stuff.

    2. Re:All times by Ian+Alexander · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Altogether I think that whoever it is who comes up with these expressions is not mathematically or scientifically literate.

      Altogether I think that people who read phrases like "the only constant is change" and flourish a physical constant as counterevidence have completely missed the point of the expression.

    3. Re:All times by CZakalwe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I mean, take a saying like "the more things change, the more things stay the same." What are we supposed to make of that?

      Well I always thought it meant that although many things will seem to change a great deal on the surface, when you look at a deeper, more fundamental level, the same old principles are still at work. Take the machinations of Politics as an example!

  2. change is now slower by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Compare life in Europe, circa 1000 with 1100. Then compare life in Europe 1900 and 2000 - the differences are much greater!

    But has it really changed that much in the last 30-40 years?

    The majority of the largest changes in the last hundred years would be: electrification ('10s), radio ('20s), telephone ('30s).

    Secondary changes would be automobile growth ('40s), the mainstreaming of the automobile ('50s) and television ('50s). The most recent change since the 1950s would the mainstreaming of computers in the late '90s.

    I think the delta from before World War I and to just after World War II would be the greatest amount of change (just look at the technology used in each of those). The Roaring Twenties would be the greatest change. IMHO it's been mostly incremental technologically, but perhaps a bit more revolutionary from a societal point of view, as technology has been absorbed into our psyche.

    Even with something like the mobile phone, the basic idea hasn't changed since the early '80s, even though they've become more sophisticated. It's the social effects that have become more prevalent in the last five years. But someone who's used a touchtone (DMTF) phone in the '60s would be perfectly at home with a mobile (if they just wanted to dial, and not have to deal with most of the suck-ass address book UIs).

  3. Re:Packet switching was originally developed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The same is true for a lot of inventions. Seems to be that inventions just seem to have their time. The light bulb, the aeroplane, television, the telephone - there were a lot of people working on them at the same time, and if the recognised inventor had not managed it, someone else would have.

    A