Abstract

This article continues an interpretation by which Internet's defining traits were already present in the first network (1969), which is explained primarily by the fact that the network was shaped by its actual users, and by the strong multi-disciplinary nature of the elaborations that led to its creation. For this reason, the protagonists of this story, and in particular Joseph C.R. Licklider, had an uncanny ability to predict the network's future development and uses. On this premise, the article demonstrates that these predictions preceded and directed the fine-tuning of necessary technical solutions, and not vice versa.