- From the column by Dr. Marco Santarelli, entitled:
“Intelligence of things. From Cybernetics to Blockchain. Historical courses and paths of technology.”
Global interconnections: pros and cons
It is predicted that by 2020 there will be approximately 26 billion devices that will be part of the large family of interconnections.
Smartphones, TVs, tablets, smart refrigerators (the so-called Internet of Things and Internet of Everything) are increasingly joining the virtual world with the physical and social world.
The main goal of this fusion is to make our lives better and include them in a more optimal social coexistence.
However, the increase in the number of interconnected devices exposes us to greater security risks, making society itself more vulnerable and generating, as I often say, asymmetries between users (people) and digital operators.
While we activate the mental process of learning (automatic or not) about these technologies, we have the task and duty, simultaneously, to protect the new TLC infrastructures, that is, to defend ourselves from digital invasions.
All of this must be considered apart from the fact that, in general terms, in Italy and the European Union, the so-called cyber perimeter should be preserved, and knowledge and potential of new connectivity networks, of 5G, should be expanded, as well as preserving one’s ethics and humanity.
All of this can only be achieved by combining the mental ability to understand and comprehend what is happening with the technological scenario and the serious and active awareness of the history and knowledge of the same technology.
Technological scenario: new professions.
In this last area, various figures are emerging who hold the “handle” to help companies and public administrations better understand security procedures. See Security Managers and Privacy or Blockchain experts (explained by Affidaty in the video on the page at the link here), who are fundamental references for the development of the so-called hybrid culture.
In this direction, the real challenge lies in the possibility of understanding the main fabric of such innovations and comparing them with everyday life. In this article, as number 0, we will understand what basis these technological “approaches” have and why terms are used today that few years ago were not even known or were very well-known in certain areas, but not yet present in common language.
Here is the crux: we must understand which concepts modern technologies are approaching and how they have been refined over time.
Internet: the first epochal step.
From A to B
Let’s dive right into the topic. Have we ever wondered what it means, in technological terms, to transport content from A to B? Where did the so-called communication and information protocol come from? How did we go from scribes to profiling people? How did we get to 5G, fiber, and broadband?
Let’s take a step back and try to tell this epochal passage. The first step towards information technology was first taken by the birth of the internet.
General Eisenhower
One fine day, General Dwight David Eisenhower began to think about how to communicate more effectively and quickly than Morse code without having to move too far away from command centers. He thought of a project and named it “Arpa” (Advanced Research Project Agency). He began to create research groups (Science Advisory Committee, later Science Advisory led by James R. Killian Jr., president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and as early as 1957, which was realized in 1958, he came up with a series of ideas to counter Russia’s launch of the Sputnik into orbit before the US.
In this regard, Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy played a crucial role: to bring together various military sectors (already divided) with academia and scientific committees.
Internet: a military or social project?
This is why today we often refer to the Internet as a military project.
In reality, the real breakthrough came when it was understood that the impulse of a signal traveling on a frequency (radio waves were already known at this time) had to necessarily unite more people in a communication system.
In fact, the true essence of the Internet was first and foremost social, not military. Even Paul Baran’s [https://www.rand.org/about/history/baran.html] early studies in 1960 showed that packet switching, i.e. data transmission networks, drew inspiration from the human brain.
Paul Baran: neural networks and the human brain.
Paul Baran realizes that neural networks can be communication protocols called “distributed networks.” The model is based on the study of the complexity of connections whose nature, full of connections, recalls those of the human brain.
In the latter, the damaged part can be regenerated by neurons still in good “health.”
This model also proposes to diversify the content of information based on users.
From the Intergalactic Computer Network to Arpa Net
To support this thesis, the studies of Robert C.R. Licklider and Welden E. Clark were useful, to which Larry Roberts was added, who began to theorize in 1962 the Intergalactic Computer Network with their scientific publication, which for the first time spoke of a worldwide computer network with public access, On-line man computer communication [https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1460833.1460847].
From these reflections, Arpa Net took shape a few years later, in 1967, until it was “networked” in 1969. From 1969 onwards, Leonard Kleinrock, Paul Baran himself, and Donald Davies found a way to transmit data on this network.
The goal was to connect the points, represented by research centers, and produce the first personal computer.
Internet
Internet becomes a reality: “a computer without a hard disk, without floppy disks (which had not yet been invented), with only 12K of ferrite core memory. The system code required to operate IMP Nø1 occupies over half a mile of punched tape (about 800 meters)” [see for more information https://www.apogeonline.com/articoli/la-vera-storia-di-internet-carlo-gubitosa/].
The small company that produced all this was named Bolt Beranek and Newman, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which for the first time produced the first Interface Message Processors with a one-million-dollar contract. In 1973, two engineers, Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn, defined the rules (Tcp/Ip) that would become the communication standard for transporting data on packet switching networks.
Epoch-making innovations make possible what is considered normal today.
Without the birth of ArpaNet and these protocols, today we would not only be unable to navigate the web, but we would also be unable to exchange WhatsApp messages and share photos and images in real-time. Without the TCP/IP protocols, network browsing would be inconceivable.
Through these protocols (the term encompasses multiple collections of rules simultaneously), data packets are transferred in the Local Area Network (LAN or where our click starts) or Wide Area Network (WAN or where information ends up outside) [see for more information https://www.ionos.it/digitalguide/server/know-how/presentazione-dei-protocolli-tcpip/].
From here, the connection between humans and the world begins. From here, the World Wide Web and cybernetics begin. But we will tell you more about this in the next episode!
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