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When was the Internet invented?

Semaphore lines. Invented: 1684. Widely deployed: 1792
Electronic telegraph. Invented: 1753. Widely deployed: 1844
Hypertext: 1945
Packet switching: Late 1950s, presented 1961.
Email (on the same server, pre internet): 1965
ARPANET goes live: 1969
Proprietary software invented (before, free software was the norm): US vs IBM court case, 1969
@ adresses invented: 1971
TCP/IP: 1974
“Open Letter to Hobbyists” advocating for proprietary software: 1976
BBS: 1978
Usenet: 1980
SMTP: 1981
GNU project founded: 1983
FTP: 1985
IETF founded: 1986
IRC: 1988
WWW and http: 1989
Linux (predating the free BSDs by two years): 1991
Linux goes free software (GPL): 1992
FreeBSD and NetBSD (USL v. BSDi lawsuit settled): 1993
Mosaic (funded by Al Gore): 1991, released 1993
Page-body-grepping WWW search engines: 1993
10 million people online: 1993
I first go online (at work, and later, more regularly, at the library): 1995
OpenBSD: 1995
JavaScript: 1995
LAMP stack (free OS + server + database + scripting language), last puzzle piece Apache: 1995
Cell phones with Internet access: 1996
Cascading Style Sheets: 1996
I get my own modem! Ouch phone bills. Internet mostly IRC, usenet, mailing lists: 1996
ECMAScript 3 (basis of modern JavaScript): 1999
BitTorrent: 2001
XMLHttpRequest object (“AJAX” or “Web 2.0“): debutes 2000, widely used 2002
HTML 5 (yesss!!!! death of Flash!): 2014
Over half of Earth population have access: 2018

It’s not wrong to say “before the Internet” when talking about the 90s. I think they mean “before most people in my own life / circle of acquaintances had the habit or ability to easily look up the particular thing I’m talking about right now“. And that’s true.

We live in an age of rapid change (and by “age” I mean post the plague “Black Death“ in the late 1340s). So many things are being invented daily. Talking about the past gets weird. Even for someone like me who mostly tries to live unplugged, without smart phone or TV, even still every day is affected by technology and new inventions.

Obviously, research regarding technological unemployment is as vital today as further refinement or production of labor-saving and comfort-giving devices.