|
A: FROM MENTOR ESHE PICKETT
IN IL
Aryanna, That is a very interesting question which has oh
so many answers! I will respond as it relates specifically
to the internet. This will be a very very brief overview,
omitting many details, but the overall picture is here.
As with many technological innovations, the internet began
as research within the government and at institutions of higher
learning. Each needed a way to share information with other
agencies or institutions, and began to research ways of creating
networks to make it happen as early as the 1950s. Depending
on where you look, the answer may be different as to the specifics
of who, when and where.
In the course of my studies, I have been told that global
sharing of information by computers was first presented as
a theory by a researcher at (the infamous) MIT. It was taken
up by the defense department and further research and development
(in conjunction with minds from UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, and
the like) produced what is considered to be the first computer
network, ARPANET around 1969.
Continued development (Bell labs, aforementioned universities,
the government and others) produced rules for communicating
over the network, and data sharing became more prevalent.
BITNET (by IBM ~1981) for e-mail and NSFNet (the National
Science Foundation's network backed by government funding
~1986) data transfer, etc. were used among the research, non-commercial
and government communities.
Because of government policy, the internet wasn't commercially
available until the 1990s (Delphi, AOL), and the rest as they
say, is history! For more info, google any of the following
and you should get plenty of relevant results: ARPANET, NSFNet,
BITNET.
********************
A: FROM MENTOR KRISTIN TAGHON
IN IL
Aryanna,
What a great question! When we think of technology, we think
of modern
technology and electricity and computers. It's hard to think
of technology
without these things. But, I believe technology has existed
since people
have been around, inventing things.
I looked up technology at www.dictionary.com.
Here is one of the entries:
tech·nol·o·gy ( P ) Pronunciation Key
(tk-nl-j)
n. pl. tech·nol·o·gies
1a - The application of science, especially to industrial
or commercial
objectives.
1b - The scientific method and material used to achieve a
commercial or
industrial objective.
2 - Electronic or digital products and systems considered
as a group: a
store specializing in office technology.
3 - Anthropology. The body of knowledge available to a society
that is of
use in fashioning implements, practicing manual arts and skills,
and
extracting or collecting materials.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Greek tekhnologi, systematic treatment of an art or craft
: tekhn, skill;
see teks- in Indo-European Roots + -logi, -logy.]
So, technology not only applies to science as we know it today,
but also
just the science of applying scientific knowledge.
An example is Pompeii, Italy. This city was destroyed in 79
A.D. When
excavated, scientists discovered that these Romans had known
enough about
plumbing to create bath houses and streets that carried water
away from the
houses. The artwork on the walls showed that they had developed
the
science of creating beautiful designs on plaster, or frescos
as artists
know them. They used the science of physics to build two-story
houses,
bridges.
http://www.hotelondaverde.com/pompeii.htm
If you look at art that has existed for thousands of years,
every
civilization has developed a technology for painting and creating
artwork
to express themselves and educate the community.
Michelangelo, himself was an artist, but also an inventor.
Check out this
website that shows Michelangelo's inventions. And he lived
in the 1400s
http://library.thinkquest.org/3044/
Thanks for your thoughtful question.
|
