We have lots of colourful words for the Internet, particularly when a system crashes or is infected by malware. Perhaps that’s why UCLA computer science professor Dr. Leonard Kleinrock compares it to an unruly teen.
Kleinrock, who developed the mathematical theory of packet networks that underpins the Internet while a graduate student at MIT the early 1960s, still sees it that way decades later. He’s probably right.
In this profile of him by Network World U.S.’s Jim Duffy, Kleinrock — who still teaches and is involve in several private sector ventures — admits taming that teen will take a while.
(Image Leonard Kleinrock/UCLA)
According to his Web page at UCLA, the birth of the Internet occurred in his UCLA laboratory at 3420 Boelter Hall in September, 1969 when his host computer became the first node of the Internet. He directed the first message over the Internet a month later.
Since then he’s collected — if you’ll forgive — a data centre full of honours.
In this piece he argues that “social pressure” will eventually force individuals and governments that abuse the Internet to curb their impulses. But he concedes it will take a while. An interesting read.
