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Internet visionary J.C.R. Licklider "Computing's Johnny Appleseed"
J.C.R. Licklider worked at MIT in the 1950s on a Cold War project called SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment), a computer-based air defense system.
In 1960, Licklider published a paper titled Man-Computer Symbiosis, which would provide a guide for decades of computer research to follow. He envisioned a globally interconnected set of computers through which everyone could quickly access data and programs from any location. Because of this vision, Licklider is often called “Computing's Johnny Appleseed” for planting the seeds of the research that ultimately led to the birth of the Internet.
The launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik and the creation of ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) had researchers thinking about military communications and how to make networks less vulnerable.
In October 1962, Licklider was appointed head of the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) at ARPA. The IPTO funded the research that would eventually lead to the development of the ARPANET. Although Cold War military projects were not new to Licklider, his new position gave him the opportunity to promote his vision of interconnected computers.
Known to friends and colleagues simply as “Lick,” Licklider described what he called the “Galactic Network,” a worldwide network of computers that could share information and resources. He sought out the leading computer research institutions in the United States and established ARPA research contracts with them. Soon, about a dozen universities and companies—including Stanford, UCLA, and Berkeley—were working on ARPA-funded projects. Lick jokingly referred to this community as the “Intergalactic Computer Network.” These researchers would later form the core team that created the ARPANET.
Licklider's vision of a worldwide computer network inspired many of the people who turned that idea into reality. Larry Roberts, the principal architect of the ARPANET, later credited Licklider's vision as a major influence on the project.
One of the key technological advances that distinguished the Internet from earlier communications systems was packet switching. During the 1960s, Paul Baran and the RAND Corporation, in the report On Distributed Communications, developed the concept of packet switching as a foundation for a more resilient communications network. Rather than depending on a single path, data could be broken into packets and routed around damaged or congested areas, allowing the network to continue operating even if parts of it failed.
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