ABSTRACT
These quotations express two common and, to a certain degree, opposing views of the origins of the Internet and of email history. One version proposes that the Internet arose as a direct result of the American military’s need for a communications infrastructure capable of resisting nuclear attack.6 According to a 1997 statement from the American Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), “Internet technology (packet-switching), fi rst demonstrated by DARPA in the 1970’s . . . is the foundation of today’s military and commercial network systems.”7
In contrast to this history, other commentators emphasise the “personal,” creative and anarchic origins of the Internet and, moreover, reject the proposition that a signifi cant role was played by the US military. A representative text in this regard is Where Wizards Stay Up Late, which argues that “rumours” have “persisted for years” that the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency network) was “built to protect national security in the face of a nuclear attack.” This, the authors suggest, is “a myth” that has “gone unchallenged long enough to become widely accepted as fact.” Instead, the “project” that would become the Internet “embodied the most peaceful intentions-to link computers at scientifi c laboratories across the country so that researchers might share computer resources.”8
