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Happy Birthday, Internet!
NobodyExpects writes "I'd like to wish a happy birthday to the Internet! Today marks its 40th birthday!
In fall 1969, computers sending data between two California universities set the stage for the Internet, which became a household word in the 1990s. On September 2nd 1969, in a lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, two computers passed test data through a 15-foot gray cable. Stanford Research Institute joined the fledgling ARPANET network a month later; UC Santa Barbara and the University of Utah joined by years end, and the internet was born."
all knowledge, all questions, answered all the time (that might change the way we think of our education system!)
Yes, by providing even less incentive for people to actually study anything ;) To quote a friend of mine: A masters in Google and a doctorate in speed reading.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
1982, depending on who you ask. The migration to TCP/IP on ARPANET occurred in 1982 and was completed by January 1, 1983. The Internet was designed primarily by Cerf beginning in the early seventies. See Inventing The Internet by Janet Abbate.
A masters in Google and a doctorate in speed reading.
This has actually been somewhat true (if you replace Google with Searching, that is) for a lot longer than the internet has existed. One of the most important things to learn at medical university/college, for example, is how to look stuff up. Ever wonder why doctors have giant libraries sitting around in their offices? That's all knowledge they gained in university, then promptly forgot, like any sane person would. They learned the reference system available to them at the time, and know how to use it - where one person gets hopelessly lost, they can find something useful. My mother collected a ridiculous number of books over the years for her practice - and she says her laptop and the internet almost invalidated nearly half of them.
Some basic training will always be required to understand certain things without a reference, though. Very simple example: nowhere in the wikipedia article on "clouds" does it say they're too diffuse to stand on. :) Don't go skydiving with intent to land on one, folks!