Forty years ago, Leonard Kleinrock sent the first message over what is now known as the Internet. The message - the word "log" - was to be sent from a computer terminal at University of California, Los Angeles to another terminal at the Stanford University Research Institute, but it wasn't a complete success.
Kleinrock, now 75, recently reminisced about the first attempted message in an interview with CNN, explaining how at the very end of typing in the word "log," SRI's host crashed: "So the very first message ever on the Internet was the very simple, very prophetic 'lo,' as in lo and behold."
Lo and behold to say the least. In the 40 years since that first message, the Internet has profoundly shaped not only the day-to-day lives of billions around the world but the very structure of world society.
The early proselytizer of the Internet, former Vice President Al Gore - who, no, did not invent the Internet - should still be credited with advancing the idea of the Internet as a technology for the masses. When he spearheaded the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991 as a senator, Gore envisioned a future of "information superhighways," but who knew then how accurate his vision was.
Information now races through cyberspace, or a "series of tubes," as former Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, called it, at speeds unimagined just a few years ago. No longer is the Web just a separate tool for finding and sharing information - it is a complete extension of our lives. A question I feel compelled to ask, now, is whether we've given it too much power over our political and government structure.
Consider this: Barack Obama would have most likely not been elected president a year ago if not for the Internet and his campaign's ability to capitalize on the social networking aspect of it. "Obamamania" didn't spread through barbershops and small town diners; it spread virally through broadband cable wires, surfacing in message boards and on Facebook.
This was, I believe, the first concrete example of the true power of the Internet. The Web finally showed itself to us as a means to accomplish political ends.
And with this power comes incredible responsibility. The Web has been used up to this point for just as incredible purposes: It has served as the great equalizer, allowing anyone from anywhere to share ideas, information and opinion. It has streamlined production and even made us safer. It is an unremitting reminder of the power of human thought and our capacity to change the world one person at a time.
Only the Internet rivals the untamed vastness of the human mind, and as much promise it has - to accelerate free expression and to celebrate popular culture and political visions - it has increasingly fallen prey to the worst aspects of humanity, namely the desire to support every crazy idea living in the dark crevices of our brains.
At the height of this summer's crazy parade, no one was safe from the Internet. No matter your political affiliation, the Birthers were by far the most cockamamie of the summer if not for their belief that the president of the United States wasn't born in the country, but because their steadfast beliefs were quick to be supported by gonzo "facts" found on the Internet.
Forty years on and the Internet has come to a crossroad. One road leads to a tool that propagates our greatest thoughts, and the other leads to an echo chamber of our worst.
Lo and behold.
Matt Christ is a political science sophomore. His column appears on Mondays.
