In 1969, the U.S. Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) inaugurated ARPANET, a small network of high-speed supercomputers designed to withstand military attack. The purpose of ARPANET was to enable researchers and scientists to share one another's computer facilities by long distance for national research and development projects. However, writes author Bruce Sterling, "The main traffic on ARPANET was not long-distance computing. Instead, it was news and personal messages." Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, ARPANET grew, accommodating many different types of computers, until it was incorporated in 1989 within the National Science Foundation's own computer network, which became known as the Internet. According to Sterling, "Its users scarcely noticed, for ARPANET's functions not only continued but steadily improved." As the availability of personal computers increased, the Internet gradually progressed beyond the purview of military and research institutions into schools, libraries, and the business world.

The Internet has...