Autographs of internet pioneers

The internet's top five inventors sign autographs for science and technology fans.

Set of autographs by the internet's top five inventors: Robert Kahn, Radia Perlman, Tim Bernes Lee, Vint Cerf and Leonard Kleinrock. 12.8 cm x 7.5 cm. Excellent condition. Unique pieces.

Have you ever imagined waking up one day without having access to the World Wide Web? It's a terrifying idea, isn't it? A world without the internet is almost inconceivable, we open our eyes every morning and see the news, send messages, watch a video, no matter what we do, we live connected. Especially now, in times of social isolation, the internet has become a tool for contacting our loved ones. However, even if it seems unbelievable, there was a world before the Web. Yeah, and not so long ago, a few decades ago the internet wasn't even a dream of the most ambitious minds, until some people made history by building an invisible bridge of networks that changed the world. Do you know who they are?

The name Robert Kahn may not be very familiar, you might think that this 81 year old man is a kind old man who doesn't know how to turn on a computer. However, this American computer scientist was one of the pioneers in the development of the World Wide Web. Robert was responsible for creating TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). Do you know the acronym? It refers to one of the communication protocols that supports the global internet network. And if you didn't know that, it's good to put aside the idea that only young people know how to use the network.

But the internet is a child of different parents, and another of its parents is Vinton Cerf . The mathematician, also from the United States, started the development of IP, an interconnection protocol without which we would not be able to access the network. In addition to Tim Berners-Lee, none other than the creator of the World Wide Web. The British physicist built the first website placed online, in the distant year of 1991, which explained the functioning of the tool itself. Another important name is that of Leonard Kleinrock, an American engineer and computer scientist who made numerous contributions in the field of computer networks, in addition to working on the development of Arpanet, the forerunner of the now-known Internet.

However, the creation of the network also had important female participation, such as Radia Perlman, known as “the mother of the internet”. The computer scientist from the United States created the Spanning Tree protocol, which allows the operation of network bridges. Additionally, Radia worked on the design and standardization of the networks we know today.

Even though we are used to the internet in our daily lives, we forget how complex its operation is, and we see a milestone in human history that transformed our communication as something trivial. The fathers of that revolution, the internet, are all here.