The mad scientists who built the internet
DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency has been around for 50 years, and it’s created some of the most important technological advances of the century, including the Internet and GPS.
In his new book, The Department of Mad Scientists, Michael Belfiore tells the Internet tale, but he also presents the larger story of DARPA: its origins in the post-Sputnik climate of fear in the US, the dawn of the Space Age, and its lesser known research into defense technologies.
What’s enjoyable about this story is that “put a bunch of smart people in a room and see what happens” approach. Belfiore credits that blue-sky thinking, in part, for some of DARPA’s greatest innovations.
Listen to this interview with NPR’s Guy Raz on All Things Considered.
