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Room no 3420, stages of civilisation, before and after the internet

Published : Monday, 20 July, 2020 at 12:00 AM  Count : 631
Chinmay Prasun Biswas
�L� 'O' 'G' 'I' 'N'-on 29th October, 1969 Charles Clyne, a student of California University was trying to send only these five letters to his friend William Duval sitting at Stanford Research Institute, 568 kilometres away from California. They had computers on their tables. Clyne typed 'L' on his key board but how to know whether it reached the other end? He dialed to his friend over telephone and reply came 'yes.' Then he typed 'O', dialed again, got the same answer and became tension free but just after typing 'G' the system crashed. Through this event, i.e. sending two letters and being stumbled at the third one, seed of the most modern system of communication in the history of civilisation was sowed.

Success in sending two letters crossing a distance of 568 kilometres away in 1969 is, along the passage of time, today's internet, the smartest mode of contact among people. Roughly speaking, users and non-users of internet are standing on two opposite sides of modernity. Internet has changed total society and lifestyle of people around the world. Users are known as modern and non-users are not. When any future historian will write the history of human civilisation he will divide the age into two parts--before and after internet. It is not only necessary but also urgent to look back at the revolution that has completed half century.

Communication is a very important element of evolution and human beings are very expert to invent and acquire it. With this ability he has pushed all other animals back. Language is the most important part of verbal and written communication but other animals lack it. Human beings have advanced forward through invention of developed system of communication. The way from calligraphy to internet through telegraph, telephone, radio link and wireless is very long.

Slanderers say that in the last count science is a war child which can't be ignored totally. When higgs boson (god particle) was discovered on 4th July, 2012 in Sern Laboratory and the world of physicists became overwhelmed with joy, some of American physicists sighed because they could also achieve the success if end of cold war between America and Russia did not nip an American initiative in the bud. Molecular physics is always a huge task. It is to break molecules from small to smaller particles. To collide the molecules runnning a long way is essential which is very costly. Many war hit countries of Europe jointly established Sern to curtail America's monopoly in molecular physics. When higgs boson was discovered in large hadron collider at Sern, it was the largest ever man-made machine prepared by 1000 scientists of 100 countries.

Much ahead of that America took an initiative to build a machine three times bigger and three times more powerful than large hadron collider. President Ronald Wilson Regan approved the project to build super conducting super collider but after digging a 22 km tunnel and spending $ 200 crore the project was abandoned in October 1983. As Soviet Union had fallen and cold war had ended, what was the reason to prove America's supremacy? If super conducting super collider had been built then higgs boson could be discovered there by America.

If end of cold war is the reason of collapse of collider then its beginning is also the root of invention of internet. In October 1957 when cold war was at its peak, Russia launched Sputnik to space. America was bewildered. According to experts, it was shock of the century to America because America could not believe that socialists attained such tremendous development underhand in space science.

American president Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower said, "This can't be tolerated at all" and in January 1958 he formed Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) to develop the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in American universities and laboratories funded by government.

Costly computers were purchased but result was zero because huge computers worked in their own language. One computer did not understand the language of another though inter computer connectivity was essential for technical development. Then budget allocation of ballistic missile was curtailed to provide financial support for preparing ARPAnet. Arms scientists were dissatisfied with this decision. To mitigate their wrath they were convinced that if Soviet missiles damage one computer then others will preserve information because all computers will be inter-connected with advanced technology of sharing information.  

In 1969 computer was not widely used but ARPAnet issued a press release sowing the seed of internet. Leonard Clainrok, a professor of California University commented, "Computer is now at its infancy but once it will spread out. May be many companies like today's power and telephone will come forward to deliver computer service to doorsteps of people." He was very much correct in his observation. Computer is now in the hands of a huge section of people.

However, rose has thorns. Alongwith success of internet, forgery, state's surveillance on individual's liberty, fake news, pornography, slander all these are running through internet. Initially Clainrok thought that all these would be overcome because internet is at its infancy but now there is no scope to believe it because internet has become a platform to show the lowest instincts of human beings.

Many incidents happened in 1969 - attack of American police on homosexuals in New York in June, Apollo's landing on the moon with Armstrong, 4-day music festival of Woodstock attended by 4 lakh people ignoring rain and mud but invention of internet has surpassed all others. Memory is still bright in people's mind. That room of California University, from where Charles Clyne first contacted his friend William Duval on 29th October, 1969, has been preserved intact as a museum. As birthplace of internet it attracts many people. Good or bad, it marked the beginning of change. Standing in front of that 51 year old computer and handwriting on blackboard visitors remember astronomer and writer Karl Sagan who said, "Science is the art of managing our future."
The writer is a former Commissioner of Taxes






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