From room-sized machines to a connected world: how the Internet changed humanity.

[00:00.23]In the 1940s, the world witnessed the birth of electronic computers, such as ENIAC, UNIVAC, and the British Colossus.
[00:09.73]These machines, massive room-sized behemoths powered by vacuum tubes, were designed for military calculations, code breaking, and scientific research during and after World War II.
[00:25.77]Pioneering minds like Alan Turing laid the theoretical groundwork for digital computation, envisioning machines capable of solving complex problems and processing information swiftly.
[00:36.91]The 1950s marked a breakthrough, the invention of the transistor.
[00:41.95]Smaller, faster, and more reliable than vacuum tubes, transistors revolutionized computer design, signaling the dawn of a new era.
[00:51.95]The seed for linking computers so they could share information began germinating in scientific circles, though the concept was years from reality.
[01:01.52]Still, the world was on the brink of a revolution.
[01:04.51]The question was no longer if machines could think, but how soon they would connect.
[01:10.04]The quiet hum of the mainframes foreshadowed the transformation that would one day span the globe.

In the 1940s, the world witnessed the birth of electronic computers such as ENIAC, UNIVAC, and the British Colossus. These machines—massive, room-sized behemoths powered by vacuum tubes—were designed for military calculations, codebreaking, and scientific research during and after World War II. Pioneering minds like Alan Turing laid the theoretical groundwork for digital computation, envisioning machines capable of solving complex problems and processing information swiftly. The 1950s marked a breakthrough: the invention of the transistor. Smaller, faster, and more reliable than vacuum tubes, transistors revolutionized computer design, signaling the dawn of a new era. The seed for linking computers—so they could share information—began germinating in scientific circles, though the concept was years from reality. Still, the world was on the brink of a revolution. The question was no longer if machines could think, but how soon they would connect. The quiet hum of the mainframes foreshadowed a transformation that would one day span the globe.

The Internet Revolution

The Dawn of the Machine