The Internet
It all seemed such an innocent idea at the time
It all seemed such an innocent idea at the time
"The Internet" has been the primary driver of social change during my lifetime, and I was actually partly to blame.... Until then "personal" computers were hobbies, like amateur radio or electronics. Serious computing was done by white-coated accolytes in clean-room mainframes who whispered in UNIX and machine code. All very closed-book and academic. But the Xerox Palo Alto WIMP interface so assiduously integrated by Apple and later Microsoft, although very expensive in terms of computational resources, brought computers interfaces away from the techie to something the average person was content to use.
So the abilities of an IC double about every two years.
From the 1940s ballistic calculation and Enigma-cracking computers to scientific computational devices was largely a small-community tool; it wasn’t until the 1980s when the idea of the average person or employee using a computer as a home or work tool became commonplace.
And thus the personal computer (Apple or Windows) was born.
From the start of the PC business modems were available for access to "Bulletin Boards" containing information, games, programs, nuclear warhead codes (just kidding) and, the Holy Grail, e-mail.
AOL, Compuserve, Minitel and Prodigy all aimed to wrap one's dial-up service in "friendly" (money-making) ease-of-access programs but what we all wanted (and eventually got) was TCP/IP-only "naked" Internet access from the likes of Demon Internet in the UK (whose dial-up numbers alway ended in "666") for access to WAIS databases, e-mail, FTP file transfer servers and the newly-minted World Wide Web servers.
In time web and e-mail servers wouild come to dominate both the Internet and popular perceptions of what the Internet is, and would drive world-changing business models like eBay, Amazon, Netflix and Google before forcing mobile data speeds up and the transition of the humble mobile phone into the Internet access device of choice (bringing the long-held dream of affordable video calls to reality).
We have seen the re-skilling of the entire world's white collar workforce in a single generation from non-computer-users to almost entirely computer-users.
COVID acclerated the drive towards home working and its associated social effects both good and bad, meaning a fall in rush-hour commuting and contributing to 2023 being what has been described as "Peak Oil".
We have seen data transmission speeds rise exponentially as standards have changed from synchronous (serial ports) to asynchronous (USB) to packet (Ethernet and VoIP) and wire-free (Bluetooth, NFC and WiFi).
We have seen the wholesale replacement of the world's telecommunications networks with fibre optic cables (you're not quite there, Openreach, but enough kicking from OfCom and you will eventually cave in) and the surprise return to digital communication since the (digital) telegraph was replaced by the (analogue) telephone.
Digital technology has affected all forms of storage, from music to books to video as well as disintermediation - who goes to an insurance broker now for car insurance? Or a travel agent in all but the most specialised of transactions? Video stores have gone, record stores the same way, bookshops are hanging on by a thread.
But what of the future? AI is a toy now, but learning computers have the potential to change our lives as dramatically as the Internet has.
In my working life I trained countless people in the seemingly-mundane process of using a mouse, I've sat with CEOs of FTSE-100 companies and Russian oligarchs, with the man who blew the whistle on the Post Office branch scandal, with millionaire book publishers and property investors, Middle East potentates and Lords of the Realm, helping them access their new technology, specified countless databases, networks, WiFi systems, servers, e-mail systems and broadband access systems.
But the Internet has profoundly changed the way the world works, in more than just technical ways. The Social effects have been many and not all good, it has certainly accelerated the view of the world as a global community, helped to reduce rabid nationalism and religoious extremism, and helped us all to see the opposing viewpoint even if we don't necessarily agree. It's reduced totalitarian Governments' abilities to control their people and accelerated the desire of poor and poorly-governeed countries to be like the others. Sadly, due to the intrasigence of the entrenched and often kleptocratic authorities, these people feel their only option is to leave their country and seek work and asylum in richer countries like the EU, Great Britain and the USA. I do think more should be done to help these Governments make their countries more attractive to their own people, but I'm beyond the age where I believe I can make a difference.