The announcement of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), or “Star Wars” as it became popularly known, mobilized necessary resources that funded a major step in the emergence of the Internet and its World Wide Web. In the early 1980s, President Ronald Reagan, a self-professed “big picture guy,” addressed the country on national television, introducing SDI as a plan to protect the US and its Allies from attack by long-range nuclear missiles. The plan was to move away from the “mutually assured destruction” (MAD) policy and towards a “defensive shield” that would stop any incoming offensive attack with some combination of space-based lasers, killer satellites, and guided missiles.

Despite the wrong spelling of the President’s name, the video below captured the SDI announcement on March 23, 1983.

This new defense system would be highly complex and beyond the capabilities of human monitoring and coordination. It would need a computerized and automated type of “artificial intelligence” (AI) to patrol the ground and skies and react accordingly to any perceived threat. The Star Wars research agenda would soon reach into many parts of the US government and the academic research community to lead the development of AI and, in the process, significantly boost the development of the Internet.

Although ARPA had been funding computer research since the late 1950s, the Strategic Defense Initiative gave it a major new monetary stimulus and focus. ARPA developed the data communications technology known as packet-switching during the late 1960s, which marks the beginning of the Internet. A few years later, ARPA began experimenting with “internetworking” on several computer networks. In particular, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn wanted to connect a computer host at the University of Hawaii to computers at Stanford and BBN in Boston. They came up with the revolutionary internetworking technology and TCP/IP protocols that connected the ARPAnet with other networks. In 1981, the renamed DARPA (Defense) mandated the use of TCP/IP throughout the military’s ARPANET, establishing the protocols as future standards.

Skynet and Starwars

After his televised announcement, Reagan signed two National Security Council (NSC) directives (NSDD-85) and (NSSD 6-83) ordering a long-term research-and-development plan and a national security study directive asking the Department of Defense to develop a program to shape the ultimate plan to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons. These directives set in motion several initiatives that began addressing the issues and problems that would be faced in such an endeavor. One of the most prominent was produced by the Defense Technologies Study Team, chaired by former NASA director Dr. James C. Fletcher. They produced a seven-volume study suggesting the scientific possibility of such a system and laying out a five-year plan for its R&D.[2]

While much of the money was going to sensors, satellites, and laser technology, The New York Times discovered that much criticism within the military-industrial complex was being leveled at the state of computer software needed for such an endeavor. Problems with the space shuttle’s computers at the time had shown difficulties in creating operational software for managing complex machinery, and the Star Wars vision required software coordination and precision, which was much more difficult. The prospects for a global space-based defense shield seemed daunting, to say the least.

While even the Fetcher Report had indicated that the software problems would be a difficult challenge, a new review started in late 1985 challenged the whole capability of the military and its contractors to produce such a complex array of integrated hardware and code. Many projects were forced to abandon their original expectations for a tightly controlled system of defense nodes. They began to move instead towards a more autonomous set of connected computer capabilities. While the military continued to be involved, the National Science Foundation (NSF) sought to become part of the solution by creating a network to connect supercomputers nationwide to conduct research for the SDI complex.

Although Reagan’s SDI was pure simulacra at the time and continues to be a defense strategy in theory and not in practice, it was a vision with consequences. This boost for a new national defense system created the foundation for the NSFNET, itself the foundation for the Internet. This funding provided a crucial catalyst in the continued standardization of Internet protocols and routing equipment as the NSF was determined to use the TCP/IP protocols.

The NSFNET was a crucial step in the transition of the Internet from an obscure military network to a network of academic and research facilities and eventually into a system of widespread social communication and e-commerce.

In my next post, I will take a closer look at the Japanese AI threat and the role of Al Gore in shaping the Internet, including his role in writing the High Performance Computing and Communications Act in 1991 that was signed by President Bush.

Summary

The article discusses the origins of the Internet, arguing that it stemmed from two American paranoias: fear of communist aggression and fear of losing technological superiority to Japan. It connects the development of the Internet to Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), or “Star Wars,” highlighting how the need for a complex, automated defense system spurred research in artificial intelligence and computer networking. The article details how ARPA’s existing research, combined with the influx of funding from the SDI, led to the development of packet-switching, TCP/IP protocols, and eventually the NSFNET, which paved the way for the modern Internet. It also mentions the influence of the Japanese AI threat and Al Gore’s role in shaping the Internet, which will be discussed in a later post.

Citation APA (7th Edition)

Pennings, A.J. (2010, Nov 20). How “STAR WARS” and the Japanese Artificial Intelligence (AI) Threat Led to the Internet. apennings.com https://apennings.com/how-it-came-to-rule-the-world/star-wars-creates-the-internet/

Notes

[1] Quote on the military putting cyborg theory into practice from The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America by Paul N. Edwards, page 275.

[2] I am indebted to Pulitzer Prize winner (Fire in the Lake) Frances FitzGerald’s Way Out There In the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War for more detailed information on SDI. The national security directives signed after the immediate post-SDI speech outlined a strategy of research-and-development from p. 243.

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Anthony J. Pennings, PhD has been on the NYU faculty since 2001 teaching digital media, information systems management, and global communications.

Why I’m a Tsaiko: Sports and Social Media

Posted on | October 30, 2010 | No Comments

I don’t have a lot of time for sports these days but I do stay true to my alma mater, the University of Hawaii (UH) despite the fact I live in New York City. Forget professional sports. I may catch a Jets or Giants game now and then while I’m working on my computer. Yankees? Sorry you got to get into the World Series to get my attention. Knicks? Sad, but you lost me a long time ago. I will, however, stay up to 3:30am on a Sunday morning to stream a Hawaii Warriors football game.

Part of why other sports have faded from my attention (aside from my 6 year old daughter) is the access to the games and the information about the team I really care about. I remember after I graduated from UH in the early 1990s and was living in New Zealand. I used to have to go the public library in Wellington and read the scores off a two-week old USA Today. Now, if I don’t see the game on HDTV, I can stream it on my computer from ESPN3 (a benefit of going with FIOS TV) or pay $12 to stream it via Time-Warner’s Oceanic operation in Hawaii. The Internet also allows me to hear the games on 1420ESPN.com with the added benefit of having announcers that are much more knowledgeable than your average sportscasters. In addition to the actual games, a variety of social media has made following the team much easier and also created a sense of community. For example, another blog, uhfanblog.com aggregates information and links from a number of sites, including Youtube videos of the Honolulu evening news. Thus my reference to being a “Tsaiko”, a loose group of UH football fans who congregate electronically on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser‘s Warrior Beat blog run by sports reporter Stephan Tsai.

First, a little about the name “Tsaiko”. Obviously it is drawn from Stephan’s name and his leadership and popularity is largely what makes the blog so popular. It sounds like “psycho”, a often used term for someone who is a bit crazy. The name “fan” comes from “fanatic” so this is a good and expected trait for any sports follower. The name picks up some local flavor becomes the word “saiko” in Japanese means great or outstanding. Those familiar with Hawaii know that the Japanese influence through its immigrants and visitors have a strong cultural influence on the islands and, as you might expect Stephan Tsai is Japanese-American.

Besides writing his daily features for the newspapers sports pages, Tsai also posts inside information and up-to-date information on the blog. Participation from the readers is encouraged and comments range from an average 200-300 a day to almost a 1000 on gamedays. Comments come from the “Tsaikos” but no one has to sign up and posts are anonymous although an email is required. Posts range from encouragements like “Go Warriors” to in-depth personal analyses of game strategy and the economics of college sports. The latter made more interesting by the precarious state of the venerable Western Athletics Conference (WAC) that UH currently resides in.

In social media terms, this is a classic case of “user-generated content” but it also suggests some insights into the role of journalists. The readers/participants provide a wide range of content from heated personal opinion to updates on NCAA statistics (Hawaii tends to be one of the top passing teams in the country) to links to articles coming out in other online newspapers and blogsites. The blogs provide unique perspectives outside of the official conversations between journalists, coaches, ADs, and public relations staff, suggesting new leads and angles on stories.

Following my alma mater’s sports teams, particularly football, provides a close examination of how social media is being used to garner user content and engagement. It also provides insights into how these technologies are changing the field of journalism by stressing the role of community manager and moderator. Perhaps even more consequential, the money involved in college sports forefronts the impact of television, the importance of high definition, and the increasing relevancy of streaming games over the Internet. Besides, it’s a lot of fun.

-NYUH