Event shares internet's military development

Otago Daily Times

a day ago

Dr Noel Packard explores the Cold War origins of the Internet. Photo: supplied
Covert military origins beneath today's worldwide computer network will be revealed in two talks.
Interdisciplinary social scientist Dr Noel Packard, of Auckland, will present her research into how the internet's foundations were quietly laid under Cold War secrecy during sessions at the New Zealand International Science Festival.
Her University of Auckland media, film and television PhD thesis traces how the United States military network that became today's internet began as a way to electronically track political activists and communists.
The first high-powered "interactive" computer networks were bankrolled by the US to fight a new kind of counterinsurgency warfare against communism.
"Probably half of our taxpayer money went to the military in the Cold War, if not more," she said.
The 1959 defence directive that authorised funding the experimental Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (Arpanet), precursor to the modern internet, required real-world trials.
Trials ran in Vietnam, South America, the US and other countries.
Electronic tracking of activists and the neutralisation of alleged communists proved the system's worth under the name of anti-communism.
"That was a good patriotic thing that could get Congress to approve that amount of money to build this new kind of counterinsurgency."
The seismic shift brought by the World Wide Web meant the pre-internet and post-internet eras should be distinguished, just as scholars separated BC and AD, pre and post-World War 2 or the Dark Ages and the Enlightenment, she said.
To untangle the internet's early phases, Dr Packard collaborated with graphic designers to create infographics charting secret military tests in the 1960s-70s, wider distribution in the 1980s and full commercialisation as the public internet from the 1990s onward.
One infographic depicts the development of the internet as a tree growing up through a lake: the leafy canopy above the water representing the public network, while the "submerged roots" underscore how much of the internet's foundation was built out-of-sight or to be "non-evident".
For most users, those deep roots remain invisible.
"I think it should be a common way of looking at internet history because if you have that understanding, you are more inclined to use the electronic media in a way that is more cautious or more careful.
"People should know the dangers as well as the good things about the internet: where it came from, what the networks were used for, what they grew out of."
Dr Packard will present her collaborative efforts with graphic designers Hannah Day, Milan Law and Emma Ryan, of Bowman Communications, to chart the history of pre-internet network in infographics during the New Zealand International Science Festival.
Details
Dr Noel Packard: Making Internet History More Visible
Festival Hub
285 George St
Tuesday, July 1, 2pm-3pm
Wednesday, July 2, 11am-noon
No tickets required
[e-mail]