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The Internet: A Cold War Baby |
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The internet is actually older than most people realize and came about because of cold war fear. After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, Americans became frantic that they were falling behind the Soviet Union technologically. The government quickly moved give America an edge in the cold war. They passed the National Defense Education Act to improve the science and math skills of the children, created NASA to launch the space race, and create the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to develop an alternative communication system that could enable the military to function in the event of a nuclear strike. It was ARPA who developed what we know today as the internet (originally called ARPANet). Though it has long since outgrown its original purpose, the internet is very much a child of the cold war. Return to the M.A.D: The Cold War a HistoryWiz Exhibit |
