The results are in, and the Internet has been declared as the “best thing” to ever happen to us humans since the invention of the Rohwedder Bread Slicing machine that cut bread into perfect slices back in 1928.
Over 5000 people were put to the test to decide what has been the greatest invention since 1928 in an online poll conducted by news.com.au in conjunction with Times Online in the UK.
As it turns out, an overwhelming number (40.6 per cent) voted for the medium that they were using to answer the poll – the Internet – the brainchild of British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee.
Sir Lee, working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland, created the Web in 1989 and released it in 1992. The underlying ideas of the Web can be traced as far back as 1980, when Lee built ENQUIRE (referring to Enquire Within Upon Everything, a book he recalled from his youth).
The concept also finds a place in Isaac Asimov`s short story “Anniversary” (Amazing Stories, March 1959), in which the characters look up information on a home computer called a “Multivac” outlet.
Since then, it has undergone a host of modifications to emerge as the “best thing” to have ever happened to humans.
Text: Sify News Desk with agency inputs
Image: A screenshot of World Wide Web
