Who Founded the Internet? – The Birth of an Indispensable Part of Our Lives…

In its basic definition, the internet is an electronic communication network that enables computer systems to connect with each other and communicate over long distances. In other words, my writing of this article and sending it to the site, your clicking on the site and reading this article, etc., etc. – almost all of these computer-based processes are internet-based. We owe all these conveniences to certain military studies that we will mention shortly, and more importantly, to the extraordinary work of a young mathematical engineer.

In its infancy, the internet was, of course, not something that was easy to interact with or accessible to everyone like it is today. As in most technologies, the initial studies were of military, intelligence, and defense origin and later spread to civilian life. So, where was the point where the foundations of everything were laid? That is, who was the founder of the internet? More accurately, who were the inventors of the internet? Let’s read:

The emergence of ideas similar to the internet and the laying of foundations

Notice that we described it as ideas similar to the internet. Because although the projects that form the foundations of this formation are accepted as the emergence of the internet, they are much different and more primitive than today’s functioning.

Namely; the studies that continued as mostly theoretical ideas and academic-based research in the 1950s were evaluated with concrete steps by the US Department of Defense when the 1960s were reached. Finally, a system called ARPANET, which is known by those familiar with the subject, was established and started to be used. With ARPANET, data transfer could be made between computers at two universities located at long distances in the USA, and this situation attracted a lot of interest from defense authorities. This communication network, which was initially created, consisted of 15 computers, and its use by any external environment or another computer was strictly forbidden. Also; advanced services like today’s servers, LAN, download, upload, etc., were not very possible. Therefore, we can say this: The first concrete project in the nature of the father of the idea of the internet is ARPANET, developed by the US Department of Defense. However, this is not accepted as the invention of the internet. Let’s continue:

Who is the founder of the internet?

In 1966, that is, in the years when the exciting idea called the internet was climbing towards the peaks, there was a young scientist at the beginning of his research career who had just graduated from mathematical engineering: Dr. Vinton Cerf. Born in 1943, Cerf studied Mathematical Engineering at Stanford University and completed his master’s and doctoral studies on the foundations of the internet and informatics. The reason is as meaningful spiritually as it is scientifically:

Young Vinton, starting his academic career, meets Sigrid, a woman who has been hearing impaired since birth. They fall in love and get married. Although their marriage is very happy, Vinton is very unhappy about one thing. His wife Sigrid cannot communicate with the outside world in any way unless she has eyes, and she cannot even talk to her child at a long distance by phone. Wanting to find a remedy for this situation, Dr. Cerf developed the ideas he was working on and created a project that could carry the internet to civilian life with the help of a system similar to ARPANET. At that time, Dr. Vinton Cerf had just completed his doctorate and was a young mind approaching his 30s. In addition, there were other studies similar to his work besides ARPANET.

However, in these studies, which were carried out upon the Defense Department reaching more advanced opportunities over ARPANET and seeing no harm in gifting the first technology to civilian life, the best performance was obtained from Dr. Vinton Cerf’s “internet” project. When the 1970s were entered, the project, which attracted the attention of many other researchers, was developed in a short time and turned into an advanced network that all civilians, from companies to individuals, could use. In other words; while a revolutionary invention was taking place for us, on the other hand, Dr. Vinton Cerf and Sigrid finally reached their goal; the young woman gained a new way to communicate with the outside world. It was this search for love and remedy that led the intelligent, and equally emotional and sensitive Dr. Cerf to invent the internet.

So yes, dear readers; the founder of the internet was Dr. Vinton Cerf, who graduated from mathematical engineering at Stanford University in the USA. There is no exact year because, as we mentioned, the internet is a world that evolved along with ARPANET and afterwards with quite complex, intertwined projects.