roberttaylor

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    Internet and computing pioneer Robert Taylor dies

    by 
    Jon Fingas
    Jon Fingas
    04.16.2017

    The technology world just lost one of its most prominent innovators. Robert Taylor, best known as the mastermind of ARPAnet (the internet's precursor), has died at 85. As the director of the US military's Advanced Research Projects Agency from 1965 until 1970, he helped pioneer the concept behind shared networks -- he was frustrated with constantly switching terminals and wanted to access multiple networks from one system. While a lot of the credit goes to his team for implementing ARPAnet, he both pushed hard for the project and wrote a legendary 1968 essay that foretold the internet's future: a vast, decentralized grid of connected devices that would reshape communication at just about every level.