[Chapter-delegates] FYI Vint and Bob's latest thoughts

[Dave Burstein]

Founders of the internet reflect on their creation and why they have no
regrets over creating the digital world

By Tony Dokoupil, Analisa Novak

Updated on: March 19, 2024 / 11:35 AM EDT / CBS News

In an era where the answers to the most random questions — like the indoor
land speed record or the Earth's weight — are just a few clicks away, we
often take for granted the colossal network that makes it all possible: the
internet. At the heart of this technological marvel are pioneers such as
Vint Cerf, Steve Crocker and Bob Kahn, whose groundbreaking work has woven
the fabric of the digital world we live in today.

Despite their monumental achievements, these innovators remain modest about
their contributions. "One of the big issues about the internet is that most
people don't really have a good idea of what it is," Kahn said.

Their journey began with a simple, yet revolutionary, idea: developing the
technologies and software necessary to send data from one computer to
another, eventually reaching across the globe.

"I don't think the internet is a physical thing. I think it's the
implementation of the internet protocols that's physical," Kahn said.

"Bob is taking an interesting philosophical view of this," said Cerf.
"There are descriptions of how the thing is supposed to work and you have
to implement those descriptions in things called computers and routers and
things like that."

"It's the description of how it's supposed to work that's important. So you
can keep building new things to work in new ways to make the internet even
more interesting," said Cerf.

That's what allowed their early networks to blossom into a whole universe
of interconnected laptops and smartphones and speakers and headsets. All of
which changed the way we — and they — get things done.

The astonishment never fades for Cerf, who finds incredible "all the stuff
that had to work" for a simple Google search to return results.

The internet's origins trace back to a military tool — the ARPANET —
developed in collaboration with figures like Joseph Haughney, a retired
major in the U.S. Air Force who died last month. A precursor to the
internet, ARPANET was developed to help the military, sharply different
from from the internet's current role as a platform for socializing,
entertainment and community building.

"We always had this technology that my dad would kind of wheel it in and
then show it to my mom, and no one really knew what it was," recalled
Haughney's daughter, Christine Haughney Dare-Bryan.

As her father got older, Dare-Bryan, an editor at Inc. magazine, decided to
record his stories, building a podcast all about the founders of the
internet. She selected a term her father had previously used to label some
of these innovators for the podcast's name.

"He called them these 'computer freaks.' He didn't want these computer
freaks coming on and kind of hurting or harming his beloved ARPANET. And
instead, we had something that was being used for, you know, socializing
and finding communities," said Dare-Bryan.

But for all the ways their work has improved our lives — and there are a
lot of them — it's also introduced some challenges for privacy and personal
connections.

The ease of spreading misinformation and disinformation has become a
significant concern. Cerf said he has no regrets and sees the internet's
misuse as a human issue, not a technological flaw. "It's their
responsibility," Cerf said.

"I just hope that something like the internet will continue to be part of
the society that we live in and that maybe some, you know, in some distant
time, somebody will remember I had a tiny role to play in it," Cerf said.
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