The Heart of the Internet

by Jacques F. Vallée

s/t: An Insider's View of the Origin & Promise of the On-line Revolution

Genres: Internet, Nonfiction, History

201 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2003

About the author

Excerpted from wikipedia: Jacques Fabrice Vallée (born September 24, 1939 in Pontoise, Val-d'Oise, France) is a venture capitalist, computer scientist, author, ufologist and former astronomer currently residing in San Francisco, California.
In mainstream science, Vallée is notable for co-developing the first computerized mapping of Mars for NASA and for his work at SRI International in creating ARPANET, a precursor to the modern Internet. Vallée is also an important figure in the study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), first noted for a defense of the scientific legitimacy of the extraterrestrial hypothesis and later for promoting the interdimensional hypothesis.

Reviews

[Kyleigh Lothyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, Vallee does a wonderful job of explaining the history behind the technology presented within his book. As this book was written during the early days of the internet, it was especially interesting to read due to his retrospective approach, as he recalls the time he spent helping to pioneer the internet we know today. Vallee’s wit and descriptiveness keep a potentially mundane and stale subject engaging, as he weaves in memories from his own life that tie into each topic. However, his scope is somewhat narrow when it comes to addressing the societal impact of the internet, such as digital inequality and cultural impacts. In conclusion, I would recommend this book to those who want to learn about the history of the early internet from the perspective of someone who was there at its very birth.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re into the world of high strangeness, this book is worth hunting down for the chapter on Doug Englebart’s Augmentation Research Center project by itself, but the material from it is mostly also in Vallee’s Forbidden Science 2.

As for this book’s topic, Vallee’s techno-optimism is endearing, but certainly outdated this many years after publication. Facebook didn’t even exist when this book was written, so it’s a history of the internet before it was ruined.

[Dale Stonehouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a subject as dry as computer history, Dr. Vallee does a pretty good job of clarifying things without boring one to death. As in most history, the accepted version is linear and clean with no hiccups. Vallee puts that notion to rest and also delineates what could be the future of the internet, for positive purposes and negative. Not for everyone but well done.