Does history help us understand digital culture?

To quote "wikipedia", the history of the internet begins in the late 1950's. The starting point on the metaphorical food chain were point-to-point connections and the early research into "packet switching". This co-incided with the "cold war", a bitter dispute between two of the worlds' superpowers (U.S and the Soviet Union).

Although the history of the internet may have started around that specific time, the origins of computing had started decades before. In the 1920's, the term computing was defined as "any machine that performed the work of a human computer". The first, pro-active usage of the computer was among this timeframe as millitaries began trying to create machines that could intercept and break opposition codes.

In 1943, the first great computing breakthrough was engineered. Alan Turning, in all his infinite wisdom manufactured and constructed "Colossus". A computer used for code breaking, and to read encrypted German messages during world war 2, "Colossus" was the worlds' first electronically programmed computer.

In 1962, the first computer game was played for the first time. "Spacewar Computer Game", albeit not at the level of graphics of a modern day first person shooter, it set the benchmark for games to be built upon. Created at the "Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T), the game later modernised for the Atari console.

The 70's saw the invention of E-Mail, by Ray Tomlinson at the start of the decade, this preceeded the invention of the floppy disk and the CD. By 1973, the first mini computer xerox Alto was "a landmark step in the development of personal computers". (history-timelines.org)

After Apple and Microsoft joined the fray in the mid 70's, computers began to distribute, with over half a million being in use in the United States by the end of the decade.

The 80's saw a development in the quality of technology with the Apple MacIntosh, the Commodore 64 and then later, the Nintendo hitting the shelves and metaphorically setting the cat amongst the pigeons. By 1986, the U.S has over 45 million PC's in use. All this took a back seat to the next big breakthrough.

In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee fronted a team who developed "a hypertext system", which the following year  got the ball rolling on perhaps the most important invention in new media. The Internet. Thanks to the inception of the Internet we can post an e-mail or instant message anywhere across the globe, in a matter of seconds. We can keep in contact with friends through social media, despite living miles apart. The internet socially pulled people together, and in turn changed the modern world.

Since then, Amazon, Facebook, Java, Youtube have all been introduced to the world, Web 2.0 has taken over, and changed the way we browse, the way we purchase items, the way we converse.





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From this (Colossus)



To this.