1.) This is the first of six videos we will watch produced by the same man: Robert Cringley. His other video series, which we will watch next week and the week after, preceded this one and is called Triumph of the Nerds. The whole project first began as a book called Accidental Empires As you watch, start trying to define Cringley's particular approach to the history of Silicon Valley. What assumptions does he make? Which causal factors does he emphasize and which does he ignore or underestimate? Try over the course of all six of his films to develop a precise sense of Cringley's philosophy about how history works.

2.) Focus on the role that the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) played in the development of the Internet. Then return to the question asked already on a previous set of questions: Which was more important in the early development of the computer industry: scientific innovation, federal government spending, or the forces of free-market capitalism?

3.) Use the early history of the internet as a case study in the Cold War relations between universities and the federal government. In what ways were relations good? In what ways were they problematic? How was the technology of the internet shaped by these relations?

4.) Use the early history of the internet as a case study in the Cold War relations between private industry and the federal government. The case of BBN is a good one to focus on. In what ways were relations good? In what ways were they problematic? How was the technology of the internet shaped by these relations?
 

5.) The Internet was up and running by 1970 yet its growth in the first two decades of its existence was minimal. Explain why the internet remained so obscure for so many years.

6.) At the end of the movie you will be introduced to some of the pioneers of the internet we take for granted today, people like J.R. Licklider, Stewart Brand, and Ted Nelson. We will study this history in detail in other films and readings, so for now ask yourself how their comments about the development of the internet connect with other themes already raised in the course. For example, why is innovation so often frustrated? What are the obstacles that hinder the application of innovative ideas? From the cases you have studied thus far, rank the following in terms of their tendency to support or retard technological innovation: scientific theorists, engineers, commercial companies, federal defense contractors, universities, the federal government, and the military. Account for the relative strength or weakness of each of these from the point of view of innovation.

7.) Pulling the early history of the internet together with the history of the computer industry offered in The Machine that Changed the World,  answer the following questions: who are the most important heroes of the history of computing? Is it entrepreneurs like Eckart and Mauchly, engineers in commercial enterprises like Robert Noyce or Bob Kahn, corporate leaders like Thomas Watson Jr., government institutions like the Census Bureau and ARPA, federal programs like the Apollo program, eccentric geniuses like Alan Turing and J.R. Licklider, or university-based research scientists like Vincent Cerf? Similarly, which has been the greatest engine of change within the history of computing: individual geniuses, start-up companies, the federal government, universities, or established corporations?
 
 

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.