7 episodes
Computer Freaks Inc.
-
- History
This is the untold history of how the internet almost didn’t happen. It’s an ode to fathers and daughters. And it’s a tale about the origins of the man-computer symbiosis that’s still profoundly relevant to our society today.
Host Christine Haughney Dare-Bryan, an editor-at-large at Inc., is a James Beard Award-winning journalist who has worked for NBC News as well as three of the nation’s largest newspapers, and who created the Emmy-nominated Netflix series Rotten. Dare-Bryan’s connection to the story is deeply personal—her father, Joseph Haughney, was one of the internet’s founding fathers.
Dare-Bryan spent 10 months traveling the nation interviewing these iconic founders about their work, and how it all led to the economy—and society—we inhabit today. In this six-episode series, she explores the invention, the contention, the bragging, the fighting, and the decisions that have led to our digital life.
Just as the book Hamilton explored the founding fathers of democracy in the United States, this project explores the founding fathers of the internet and how their high-stakes battles over ownership, internet privacy, internet protocols, and internet access mirror what we face today.
By looking to the past, Computer Freaks dives into modern debates: Could we have prevented online harm from the start? What is the balance between free speech and online content moderation? How much human work should be delegated to technology and A.I.? And what direction should this growing labyrinthine network of computers take?
The narrative behind Computer Freaks stretches from after World War II through the 1980s, and up to the consequences we face from this technology today. During that early period, the federal government was funding the first workable prototype of the internet, called the Arpanet, but fighting with researchers at MIT about just how far access to the Arpanet should extend.
Computer Freaks tells the dramatic, untold history of the internet straight from the mouths of its pioneering inventors: Len Kleinrock, Robert Kahn, Charley Kline, Steve Crocker, Vinton Cerf, and Bob Metcalfe, among many others. Exclusive interviews uncover hidden stories found nowhere else about the Arpanet, online harm, hacking, authentication, cybersecurity, Ethernet, TCP IP, packet switching, queuing theory, and the early contributions of women in tech.
And, perhaps most important, this series is a love letter from a daughter to an aging father and the world-changing legacy he will leave behind.
-
Chapter One: The Dollhouse
After World War II, the U.S. had to change the way it communicated if it was going to keep up with the Soviets in the Cold War, especially once Sputnik was launched. It was the vision of a Missouri boy called Lick that would solve those communication issues and spark the creation of the internet.
-
Chapter Two: In the Air
Many historians say the Arpanet (and ultimately the internet) was born on October 29, 1969. But is that really when the Arpanet began, and who should be given credit for this key moment in internet history?
-
Chapter Three: Let's Have a Ball
It’s the 1970s and both the government and academia are doing everything they can to spread the word of the Arpanet. But as the Arpanet gains popularity everywhere after its 1972 coming-out ball in Washington, D.C., through its new phone book, it also faces detractors who don’t want it to be available to all.
-
Chapter Four: The French Connection
Louis Pouzin is a French academic who some experts say really invented the Arpanet. But is that true, and should any one person be given all the credit?
-
Chapter Five: The Protocol Wars
It is the late 1970s and early 1980s and the Arpanet is in decline. NSFnet is on the rise in its place. Why did the Arpanet get eclipsed by other networks, and is that OK?
-
Chapter Six: Unintended Consequences
We return to speaking to Joseph Haughney about his hopes for the Arpanet. We ask other founders how they feel about what the internet has become. We also speak to internet early founder Hans Werner Braun’s daughters about how they reconcile themselves the world their father helped create.