"A History of the Internet"
"A History of the Internet" revealed to me the truly rich quality of the web that we engage with on a daily basis. Even the title of the lesson, beginning with "A History" is illuminative of the many threads involved in its fabric. For one, the tension between the involvement of a military agency and academics closely aligned with the Free Speech Movement is such an interesting one! I was also excited to hear about Brand's Whole Earth Catalog as a potential cultural precursor to the Internet. I'm so interested in considering ways in which our previous technologies forecasted or embodied aspects of the Internet that we are all too familiar with today. This idea reminds me of a conversation that I once had with a friend about Charles and Ray Eames. His belief is that they (both their way of thinking, and their prolific body of work) are an expression of the vastness in both breadth and depth that characterizes the Internet. They produced everything from images, videos, and houses to objects including toys and tools; in doing so, they created a web of information that was, in essence, their very own universe. I remember Chris saying, "they just thought of everything!"