MUST-401 Lessons

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Muggle Studies! I’m glad to see so many of you today. I’m aware that last week’s topic got a bit technical, but I’m happy to see that the quizzes show you understood the complicated history of computers. We will be spending today’s lesson expanding on what we learned last week, and discussing the transition from the ARPANET to the Internet and the World Wide Web.

ARPANET and Standardization

The invention of the computer and the idea of connecting them as a means of communication is one of the greatest achievements of mankind -- not just Muggles, but of all humans. The Internet is where one can truly see how this technology radically changes the fate of humankind forever. The Internet, as simply defined as possible, is a global network of computers. At any point in time, one can use a computer and access practically any information under the sun through this massive network. It is similar to the Floo Network; if you have an entry point (a fireplace with Floo powder, or a computer) you can access anything else on the network (be it a physical location or someone’s computer on the other side of the world). But how is this possible? How did Muggles go from ARPANET, a small network of a handful of computers the size of a room, to being able to connect with people from so far away?

Let’s recap. When ARPANET was created, it was only a tiny network of only four computers. It shared information via a technique called packet sharing, which contained instructions to tell the computer what to do with the data it was receiving. However, it was difficult to expand past these four because every computer needed to be set up to receive the packets. If we refer back to our previous parcel analogy, each computer had to learn how to read the language of the sender to read the address on the package. There was no set protocol for how the packets were to be made, set up, or decoded, so it was hard to add new computers to the network.

By 1970 though, a group called the Network Working Group (NWG) was formed to standardize the way packet sharing worked, so it was easier to add other computers to the network. The final result was Network Control Protocol (NCP). In the course of a few months, this newly developed protocol helped expand ARPANET from four computers to twenty-three. They referred to their fledgling network as the Internet (an interconnected network).

World Wide Web

As the network of computers started to expand rapidly, it was becoming clear that the amount of data running through it was nearly impossible to parse through. Large organizations such as CERN (a massive European laboratory located in Switzerland) had dozens of computers and would have problems remembering which data was associated with which computer. If someone sent CERN a message, it would have been received by one computer, and the employees in the lab would have to search through massive amounts of data on multiple computers in order to find the new message. What they needed to sort through all of this huge network of data was a map. 

A handful of advancements were made to achieve this map. First, in 1990 a British engineer named Sir Tim Berners-Lee developed the idea of making servers, aka special computers that just serve as data banks. Having servers helped the average computer user because it meant that they could just access the common pool of data on their server as opposed to storing it on their personal device. It’s similar to having a library instead of everyone in a school owning every book -- packets could send abbreviated data codes, and the computer could refer to the server to decipher them as opposed to having all of that information itself.

The next logical step for Berners-Lee was to create a way for humans to easily navigate through this great multitude of information. He referred to this network as the World Wide Web (this is the “www” you see at the beginning of “www.hogwartsishere.com”) and the method he created is called a “browser.” This is an interface for your computer to use to help you browse through the massive amount of information on this huge network of computers. He also developed the “language” needed to use this browser, referred to as HTML (HyperText Markup Language). You can see HTML when you use URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) to go to different websites.

Once servers, browsers, and HTML were set up, it was time for scores of people to begin joining this new network, which made it even bigger. New services were cropping up now that it was easy to join -- a simple mailing system called e-mail, a website called Google which is a type of searching tool, and even numerous forms of shopping sites. The number of computers in the network skyrocketed during this time, going from 2,000 in 1985 to over 2 million in 1993. The Internet was truly becoming something amazing, allowing you to look up and do practically anything.

It was at this point that all Muggles knew that the Internet was here to stay and was only going to keep growing. So then, why has it taken so long for magic users to get online?

Magic and the Internet 

The Internet has strictly been a Muggle-only invention for quite some time. Throughout the entire history of computers, witches and wizards have been careful to stay away. This is for many different reasons. As we’ve discussed in MUST 301, magic tends to interfere with electricity, making it difficult for anyone other than Muggles to use electric devices. This is also due to the ISoS; the threat is real of exposing oneself after electric items break down inexplicably near them. So when the very first computers were being developed, magic users tended to stray away so as not to raise any suspicions. This carried on even with the advent of the Internet. 

But even more interestingly, despite the fact that witches and wizards have developed our own computer adaptations (like the one you’re using) the older magic users still tend to not bother with them and certainly don’t venture out into the World Wide Web. A common theory for why this may be the case is that the wizarding community has always had the ability to communicate nearly instantly even without the use of the Internet. For example, we developed the head-only portion of the Floo Network to talk to someone face-to-face no matter their location well before the Muggle equivalent of Skype, Zoom, or FaceTime. With magic, we were able to develop the same skills well before the Internet was conceived, so why bother using the web? There is also the unfortunate reality of people never wanting to use Muggle inventions simply because they were invented by Muggles

If you ask me though, I think the main reason older witches and wizards have not adapted to using computers is that magic users tend to not trust things that are powered by something that they cannot see, if it is not magic. For example, electrically powered items have historically left a bad taste in the mouth of older generations of witches and wizards. This was left over from the days in which ISoS was new and tension was high between us and Muggles. Younger generations (such as yourselves!) are beginning to see that magic can be used in conjunction with Muggle technology, with the right adjustments. And the biggest contributor for that bridge is the Internet, which is all about connecting with one another -- no matter where or who they are.

And today, I’ll leave you with a quote from Sir Tim Berners-Lee, in answer to the question: Is the World Wide Web a good or bad thing?

Some people point out that the Web can be used for all the wrong things. For downloading pictures of horrible, gruesome, violent or obscene things, or ways of making bombs which terrorists could use.

Other people say how their lives have been saved because they found out about the disease they had on the Web, and figured out how to cure it.

I think the main thing to remember is that any really powerful thing can be used for good or evil. Dynamite can be used to build tunnels or to make missiles. Engines can be put in ambulances or tanks. Nuclear power can be used for bombs or for electrical power.

So what is made of the Web is up to us. You, me, and everyone else.

Here is my hope.

The Web is a tool for communicating.

With the Web, you can find out what other people mean. You can find out where they are coming from.

The Web can help people understand each other.

Think about most of the bad things that have happened between people in your life. Maybe most of them come down to one person not understanding another. Even wars.

Let's use the web to create neat new exciting things.

Let's use the Web to help people understand each other.

There will be a quiz and an essay for you today, everyone. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or want to discuss anything further.

Anna Soleil

Sources:

http://theconversation.com/how-the-internet-was-born-from-the-arpanet-to-the-internet-68072

https://assets.weforum.org/project/image/large_10veTGcevWRqbXepJ49Ujrek7C5aJ3QxKjWovToyRjU.jpeg 

https://images.theconversation.com/files/144160/original/image-20161102-27228-1iicfpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 

https://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Kids.html