The Internet

The Internet evolved from ARPANET (a US Defense Department research network) through Tim Berners-Lee's invention of the World Wide Web (1989–1991). Today, over 5.4 billion people use the internet — 67% of the world's population. It has transformed communication, commerce, education, entertainment, journalism, government, and social organization. The internet enables $5 trillion in annual e-commerce, instant global communication, access to the sum of human knowledge, and the platform economy (Uber, Airbnb, Amazon, etc.). It has also enabled mass surveillance, disinformation, cybercrime (estimated $8 trillion annually), addiction (average person spends 7 hours daily online), and the concentration of information power in a handful of companies.