Morten Bay, Slate; In Memory of Lawrence Roberts
The man who actually got the internet going has passed away.
"Why, you may ask, have you never heard of Larry Roberts if he
was so influential in developing and implementing technologies still in
use five decades later?
First of all, no single person is the “mother” or “father” or
the internet. Hundreds of people contributed to its emergence, even in
the early years. Second, we unfortunately often confuse achievements
with likability and communication skills. The people lauded in the media
as internet “fathers,” such as Vint Cerf, Leonard Kleinrock, and Tim
Berners-Lee, have all made invaluable contributions. But they’re also
excellent storytellers and charming personalities. The soft-spoken Larry
Roberts and his stern demeanor didn’t work well on TV, and he spoke in
technical facts rather than sound bites. But Roberts, driven by his
credo of faster knowledge sharing for civilization’s sake, did more than
anyone else to get the job done. Where others theorized, Roberts
executed."
