A closer look
The modern internet's ability to seamlessly route your social media is a direct byproduct of Cold War existential dread. In the early 1960s, Paul Baran was desperately trying to figure out how to maintain military communications after a Soviet nuclear strike. He realized a centralized network was a massive target, so he invented 'distributed node' architecture and packets that could independently bounce data around blasted craters. Telecom giants like AT&T literally laughed at his idea, completely oblivious to the trillion-dollar industry he had just prototyped.
