Clay HumphreyMs. HamiltonEnglish 11 AP PrepMay 23, 2014The Invention of the InternetThe Internet is by far the most advanced technological movement the world has ever seen. The ability to move information – whether via text, audio, video or a combination of both – has been our greatest asset over the past 45 years. Since the first inter-computer link was established, things have only gone from strength to strength. In the late 1950s, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite into orbit. Sputnik, as it was called, really did nothing. It was a small ball-shaped piece of metal that floated directionless in space. Regardless, the United States was scared by this launch. The Soviets had concentrated their efforts and worked hard, and many Americans feared that this would win them the Cold War. The United States responded quickly by creating two new government agencies. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is quite well known, and the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), which we hear less about (“The invention of the Internet”). Shortly after the launch of Sputnik, a man named JCR Licklider imagined what he called a "galactic network." He envisioned global computer connectivity where anyone could quickly and easily access data from any other computer in the world – an incredibly accurate representation of today's Internet (Leiner). He worried that the current U.S. telephone communications standard was too vulnerable and could easily be wiped out by a missile or two. However, Licklider was not the first to network computers. Shortly after hearing about the possibility of computer connectivity, Lawrence G. Roberts connected two computers located on opposite sides of the ...... middle of paper ......ut present-day. Internet communities keep things up to date. However, many mistakenly think that the Internet is the World Wide Web. They are different things. The web is what most people think of as the Internet: social media, video sharing, and forums. The Internet is the combined network of networks of networks in the world. The web hosts all websites, while the Internet hosts all networks. Regardless of people's misunderstanding of what the Internet is, the World Wide Web would not have been possible without it. The Internet has enabled the expansion of all things, informational and otherwise. And he got to where he is today in just about fifty years. There's nowhere to go but up, and there's no better time than now to go. The Internet will still be as remarkable in the next fifty years. Probably even more.