Event #3: Birthplace of the Internet

The Birthplace of the Internet 

For my 3rd and final event, I chose to visit the "Birthplace of the Internet" at UCLA, located in Boelter hall on the 3rd floor. As a millennial that has never lived a life without the internet, I became fascinated by seeing where the internet was first "created", at least the first time it was created by the general public. In 1969 a UCLA graduate student sent out the first message over the internet through the ARPANET system, and the student only managed to say "Lo" before the system crashed while they were attempting to say "login" (Kudler, 2018). I find this extremely fascinating because we went from not being able to send the word "login" over the internet in 1969, to 2019 where information is spreading and traveling so rapidly that it may lead to the end of us all. 

The thought of how far we have come as the human race poses a very scary thought experiment about the future of the human race. Having realized how far we have come since the birth of the internet, led me to wonder which way the human race is headed. With increasing global warming, consumption and pollution I started to ponder on a theory I had heard in a previous class at UCLA. The great filter theory states that any intelligent life form will eventually kill itself off or be the end of itself before learning how to leave its own planet. This led me to realize that Humans have in fact advanced so much that it has become a hindering a poses a threat. We became so advanced that we ended up hurting our own planet and ultimately creating this domino effect that we might not be able to stop. 

 
Ultimately, we have come a long way and it is impressive, to say the least at the level in which the internet has expanded. We have the ability to communicate with anyone in the world instantly, but at that benefit comes a great cost. Some of the negative effects of this technology advancement and social media growth has been in the presidency. Social media played a major role in electing the next president which I believe speaks a lot onto the direction we're headed and it foreshadows a very scary future where the very same technology we are so excited about could be the end of us all. 

Sources:
Kudier, A. G. "Touring the Recreated 1969 birthplace of the internet at UCLA". LA Curbed. October 2018. https://la.curbed.com/2011/10/31/10429196/internet-invented-ucla-first-message-museum

Walters, G. D. "Human Survival and the Self-Destruction Paradox: An integrated Theoretical Model". Journal of Mind and Behavior. 1999. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/43853877.pdf?casa_token=OtfNkmvivUwAAAAA:lgYCHjdO6NBJ7L7292FzFb1xe4iMLkTddNs8K0gGTOc_N9Oy9iRLTagYRkmIzxocbXWexUiNOBSGl_zLaKDpBwu0VcQ_1xe8-K32KVo_zacP-NoMfqc

Bostrom, N. "Existential Risks: Analyzing Human Extinction Scenarios and Related Hazards." Journal of Evolution and Technology. 2002.

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