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In this first lesson, let's see where we've come from, so we can better know where we're going.
[MUSIC]
0:00
Have you tried using a computer without
emailing to communicate with friends, or
0:05
a web browser to learn about the world or
watch funny cat videos?
0:09
A computer that can't talk to other
computers is a lonely device full
0:13
of information it can't share and without
an easy way to find new information.
0:17
Computers can talk and share things
thanks to the incredible network
0:23
of interconnected computers
called the Internet.
0:26
Thanks to the Internet,
exchanging information is done quickly and
0:30
efficiently.
0:33
In fact,
sharing information between computers
0:34
is the primary job of the Internet.
0:37
However, computers weren't
always connected to each other.
0:40
In the early days of computing,
back in the 1950s, computers were as
0:43
big as a room and had a lot less
power than a mobile phone does today.
0:48
In those days, one computer
couldn't talk to another computer,
0:52
even if it were in the same room.
0:56
But in the 1960s,
scientists in the United States
0:58
started working on a way to connect
computers around the country.
1:02
A government agency called the Advanced
Research Project Agency, also known as
1:06
ARPA, gave lots of money to scientists
to find out a way to make this happen.
1:11
In 1962 the scientists from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1:16
came up with an idea for
a galactic network of computers.
1:21
And in the mid-1960s something known
as packet switching was invented,
1:25
which we'll dive into a little more later.
1:29
In 1969, everything came together and
1:32
the ARPANET, that's what we called
the Internet back then, became a reality.
1:35
It wasn't much.
1:39
A computer at the University
of California Los Angeles
1:41
talked to another computer 562
miles away at Stanford University.
1:44
The computer at UCLA sent the message
log in to the computer at Stanford.
1:49
Only the letters l and o made it
before the entire network crashed,
1:54
but they didn't let this stop them.
1:59
In the 1970s and 80s the Internet grew and
grew connecting computers from
2:01
around the world, but it wasn't until
1991 that the web came along riding on
2:06
the back of the World Wide Network,
created by the Internet.
2:11
So how exactly does the Internet work?
2:16
Good question.
2:18
Let me show you in the next few videos.
2:19
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