ARPAnet

The ARPAnet was the Advanced Research Projects Agency network, sometimes referred to as the net. (PROSE: Blue Box ^[+]Loading...["Blue Box (novel)"])

ARPAnet had existed since the 1960s. In the 1980s it connected over 200 individual college, research, and military computers across the US, "talking" to one another, swapping files and electronic "mail". (PROSE: Blue Box ^[+]Loading...{"chapt":"10 Three","1":"Blue Box (novel)"}) Defence contractors, such as TLA, were eligible for connection to the ARPAnet. (PROSE: Blue Box ^[+]Loading...{"chapt":"10 Four","1":"Blue Box (novel)"})

Peri Brown described the ARPAnet as "just a bunch of scientists and generals sending each other computer messages", but Bob Salmon believed the net was going to expand past its size in the 1980s. (PROSE: Blue Box ^[+]Loading...{"chapt":"20 Two","1":"Blue Box (novel)"}) According to Bob, "[i]n the future, there could be hundreds" or even "thousands of [computers] connecting through the network", (PROSE: Blue Box ^[+]Loading...{"chapt":"80","1":"Blue Box (novel)"}) and owning a modem would be "just as normal" as owning a phone, which would completely change the way human beings communicated and even the way they thought. (PROSE: Blue Box ^[+]Loading...{"chapt":"20 Two","1":"Blue Box (novel)"})

Behind the scenes

In the real world, the ARPAnet was the precursor to the Internet, and one of the first networks to implement many of the technologies the Internet would later use. However, the two concepts have never been explicitly connected in a valid source.