The unintended consequence which changed the world – for better.

By Alec Hogg

Some books flow like a mountain stream. Others are more of a challenge, like my current read, The Innovators, by biographer Walter Isaacson. But it’s worth every ounce of reading effort.

Among the many discoveries in this history of the Digital Revolution is how the transformative technology of our time was born. After Russia’s launch of Sputnik in 1957, Americans panicked that their Cold War enemy was far ahead in science – and, more important for the early nuclear age, in war making capabilities.

This sparked President Dwight D Eisenhower to transfer the US Government’s scientific research operation, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), into the US military headquarters at the Pentagon. Soon thereafter, the science agency was charged with creating a networked system, called ARPANET, to guarantee communications would not be disrupted by a Russian nuclear attack.

ARPANET evolved into what we now know as the Internet: the modern miracle which has democratised information and brought huge productivity improvements for the entire world. Proving that despite their bad press, not allĀ unintended consequences are negative

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