Original subtitles

- [Narrator] Our history is no more than a series

of incredible events.

Each one of us can influence its course.

The tiniest of our decisions can influence

the future of mankind.

To know the past is to anticipate the future.

October 4th, 1957.

The Soviets launch Sputnik,

the first artificial satellite in history.

In the following years, in order to make up

for their technological lag,

The United States conducts an ambitious project, ARPA.

August 6th, 1991,

computer scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, invents the web

and puts the very first internet site online.

These three intimately connected events

are key in the birth and in the spread of the internet.

(dramatic music)

Communication is an essential need for living beings.

Each species uses the means at its disposal to communicate.

(wolf howling) Wolves howl at the moon,

whales sing in infrasound,

ants exchange odors.

Among them, only one has learn to go beyond

his own resources,

to communicate further, faster,

the human being.

Very early, the first men were able

to express their emotions in the form of words.

Articulated language is one of the great advances

of humanity.

In antiquity, the Greeks, like the Chinese,

organized chains of sentinels,

each within sight of the other,

the first system of long-distance alert.

The invention of mail and fast forms of postal service,

like the Pony Express, revolutionized the exchange

of information.

During the French Revolution, the telegraph is invented.

By creating combinations of geometric shapes,

messages are sent from Paris to Marseille

in just a few hours instead of several days,

as previously.

In 1837, Samuel Morse develops the first electric telegraph,

a decisive event, it takes communications

into a new age.

From 1895 on, with the radio,

it is no longer a question of sending messages

to one person.

It means distributing it on a large scale,

and for free.

Antonio Meucci invents the telephone.

Graham Bell files the patent.

In 1877, the first telephone line is opened.

In 1922, at the death of Graham Bell,

there are 13 million telephones in service

throughout the world.

- [Woman] Welcome to the memory of humanity.

Here we can control time,

analyze and compare billions of events,

and alter them to rewrite history endlessly.

Language is the ability to express a thought

and communicate it by way of a system of signs.

We agree on it, and everybody understands.

Samuel Morse did not only invent a communications tool,

he also developed a language, Morse.

To each letter of the alphabet,

he associated a series of dots and dashes,

both visual and sonic.

This very simple code can be transmitted equally well

by electric impulses, or by light signals

with a simple flashlight.

The Morse code for the alert S.O.S.

has become the universal distress signal.

A common language is the foundation stone

of all human enterprise.

Imagine a world where all people speak the same language.

Exchanges and collaboration would be much more efficient.

No more fastidious translations,

no more misunderstandings.

But wouldn't our world also be less rich?

Languages are an integral part of our cultures.

A single language would be very practical,

but it would certainly be a threat

to the world's cultural diversity.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] In the 20th Century,

technology is put to the service of a new form

of communication.

We can speak on the telephone to a friend

at the other end of the earth

because the network allows it.

A whole complex system was developed and set up.

(phone rings)

From the user's point of view,

this technological octopus is represented

by a telephone.

To be suitable for the public,

a communications system must be efficient

and easy to use.

In 1946, the very first computer in history is invented.

30 tons, with the surface of 750 square feet,

it consumes 140 kilowatts and fills an entire hanger.

It is reserved exclusively for military research.

We are still a long way from a technology

that is accessible to all and easy to use.

20 years later, the Mastodon has been miniaturized.

A digital triumph,

it can now fit in the backseat of a car.

1975 sees the founding of Microsoft,

a private company selling computers designed

for the general public.

The next year, it's Apple.

Computers are not yet handheld

but fit easily onto a desk.

In 1980, France develops its Teletel,

the first general public telematics network.

It is named after its terminal,

the Minitel.

A major avenue opens when the Macintosh goes

onto the market.

For the first time, a computer includes drawing software,

a word processor, a mouse,

and a graphic interface.

Before the 80s,

computer technology was perceived

as an instrument of control.

It now becomes a tool for freedom and creativity

available to all.

But, to communicate, the computer is not enough.

It has to be connected to a network.

This network is developed in parallel

with computer technology,

but in a more discrete way.

Its origin lies, curiously enough,

in the launch of the Soviet Sputnik satellite

in 1957.

Th United States is now faced with a huge technological lag.

They respond with the launch of NASA and the race to space,

but also with the creation of ARPA in 1958.

Run by the Defense Department,

ARPA's mission is to maintain the technological level

of the American Army far ahead of its rivals and enemies.

ARPA is highly active,

and the American Army is indebted to it.

For in particular, the GPS system,

predator drones, and the exo's exoskeletons.

In 1965, a computer in California is connected

to another in Massachusetts.

It's the first extended network in history.

Humanity takes its first steps into cyberspace.

- [Woman] Troubled beginnings.

The first computer weighed 30 tons.

The cell telephones of today weigh a few hundred grams,

can be held in the hand,

and are incomparibly more powerful.

The first extended computer network

connected two computers to each other.

Today, billions of computers are connected one to another

and share dizzying amounts of information.

Beginnings are often troubled and rarely glorious.

It requires that people believe,

see the potential, imagine the openings.

It requires visionaries.

In the last century, the first flights were more of less

glides of a few dozen yards.

Those machines, made of wood and canvas,

were just able to support themselves.

They were only capable of carrying the pilot,

and that was it.

No immediate application, no fame,

lack of reliability,

aviation was often regarded as an activity

for crazy eccentrics.

But those madmen made progress.

Slowly, at first, for sure,

but after decades and hundreds of failures,

we could cross the Atlantic in a plane.

Adopting an inverse model to computers,

the more technology advanced, the bigger the planes became.

The race for gigantism in aviation is the opposite

of the race for miniaturization in computers.

We can never know in advance what inventions will become.

The only answer is to give it a try.

(computerized beeping)

- [Narrator] Two remote computers have been connected.

It's a good start, but it's only the beginning.

The idea is to create a network in the form

of a huge web.

They know that a centralized system is vulnerable,

because the destruction of its core

causes the annihilation of communications.

At this moment, Lawrence G. Roberts enters the stage.

Roberts is an American computer scientist,

physicist, and mathematician.

Having joined ARPA, he develops a project known

as ARPANET in 1967.

The ancestor of the internet, its objective

is to transmit information from one computer to another

by passing via a telephone network.

On October 29th, 1969,

the year of the first step on the moon,

the first message is sent.

It's 10:30 pm, a historic moment.

On the screen, having traveled hundreds of miles

in a flash, the message appears:

L O.

These are the first two letters of the word login.

But, the connection failed,

and the end of the word is cut off.

The day of the first message is also the day

of the first problem with connection.

Then two computers are added to the network.

Four computer terminals form the core

of the future internet.

Very quickly, they tried to make connections

more secure, lighter.

The best way is to divide outgoing messages

into several pieces,

each lighter, and therefore, easier to send.

Sent separately, the are put back together

when they arrive on the destination computer.

A new protocol, called TCP/IP,

increases the security of this dividing into pieces,

and guarantees their correct delivery.

At the beginning of the 70s,

the technique looks promising,

but by itself, it serves no purpose.

They now have to use it,

find applications for it,

and the potential is enormous.

In 1971,

Ray Tomlinson sets up the first basic software

for sending and receiving electronic mail.

To differentiate the sender from the host,

he decides to separate the two with a symbol

that doesn't figure in the alphabet.

The at sign.

Simple as that.

He then sends himself the first electronic mail.

It contains the message QWERTYUIOP,

the top line of characters on a keyboard.

In 1983,

the part of the ARPANET belonging

to the United States Armed Forces

splits from the network

and becomes the MILNET.

At the end of the decade,

individuals and private companies gain access

to the network.

For the first time, the work internet is being used.

- [Woman] Cyber space.

Cyber space is a term difficult to define.

It's an intangible communications space,

created by the worldwide interconnection of computers.

A meeting place, a new economic and cultural frontier,

an issue of global conflict.

It is a virtual space beyond excellence.

It is sometimes seen as a territory guaranteeing freedom

of circulation of information,

transparency, sharing, democracy, equality, world peace,

and progress.

The vocabulary of cyber space is, incidentally,

rich with geographical references.

We navigate on the web,

information flow moves through portals,

gateways, channels, or ports.

Eventually, we could even create a virtual country

and become a citizen of it.

Its borders would not be physical, but ideological.

The possibilities of cyberspace are enormous.

We can be in several different places at the same time.

Everything is instantaneous,

everything can be stored in a memory,

everything can be shared and multiplied to infinity.

- [Narrator] Freedom. (light rock music)

From the beginnings of the internet,

the social dimension of the project has been a major one.

The technical advances are the fruit

of very special ideologies and communities

that have made the internet what it is today.

Because, although the internet is financed by the military,

it was built by hippies.

Hippie communities were born in the United States

at the beginning of the 1960s.

Supporters of the counterculture,

Hippies opposed both the consumer society

and any form of authority.

Today, the internet works according to a horizontal logic,

of all the pages making up the web are on the same level,

none of them is dominant in the structure.

This is not a coincidence.

ARPANET, then the internet, are free to access.

This principal goes against the logic

of the consumer society, according to which everything

must be paid for.

Its technical features, instead of being kept secret,

like a copyright,

were published, so that all could access them.

(rock music)

Designed and developed by engineers,

the internet will, at a stroke,

open up to the rest of the world.

But for the general public,

technology isn't enough.

It has to be accessible, ergonomic, intuitive.

It's Tim Berners-Lee,

researcher at the CERN in Switzerland,

who will invent this missing link.

(dramatic music)

He imagines an internet equipped with a graphic interface.

Using it could be made easy with a system of clickable links

called hypertext links.

These buttons would make it possible

to navigate from one page to another

without keying a single line of code.

By using a little editing program,

any user could create his own site and host it

within a global system.

On March 13th, 1989,

Tim Berners-Lee synthesizes his vision in a memo

that he gives to his superior.

The superior notes, "vague, but exciting."

Tim Berners-Lee has carte blanch.

On August 6th, 1991,

Tim Berners-Lee announces the creation

of the World Wide Web, HTTP, and FTTP protocols,

and the HTML language.

The Web is born.

The very first site hosted on a CERN server

is put online.

It's a web-users manual,

hosted on Tim Berners-Lee's computer,

it describes the main features of the web

and explains how to configure your own server.

More important, it provides access to source codes.

Every person in the world can access the heart

of the internet.

Nobody will now be able to sell it.

By this act, Tim Berners-Lee gifts the web to humanity.

(dramatic music)

- [Woman] We have just reached a turning point.

A turning point is a key event,

a crossroads in our history,

where the world swings one way or the other.

Tim Berners-Lee decides to provide free access

to the source code, thus enabling anyone

to create his own web server.

He could have chosen to file a patent

and market his invention.

He would have been rich.

Imagine a world where the web belonged to one

of several companies.

We can assume that each company would maintain

its own network.

Like an encrypted television channel,

access would be paying.

Their contents would be controlled,

and would be primarily for profit.

This system would be like the French Minitel,

paying to get information or a service

without having to move.

This is good, but the web that we know

is far better than that.

It belongs to us.

It's not just about consulting,

but also creating, sharing, and communicating.

Anyone can create a page, and the whole world

can contribute to it.

The web moves.

It was built in a spontaneous fashion by amateurs

passionate about computers and technology.

Hackers.

Far from the stereotype, a hacker is a computer expert

who creates, analyzes, and modifies computer programs

to improve or provide new functions for the user.

Now considered to be mere pirates,

they are among the pioneers of the web.

Their ideals were generally humanist.

Tim Berners-Lee was a hacker himself.

- [Narrator] By 1994, a world-wide technical

and social phenomenon.

The World Wide Web had to provide itself with a body

to manage its evolution.

This is the World Wide Web Consortium,

or W3C.

Its president, Tim Berners-Lee.

(dramatic music)

The internet was designed by American defense

and research organizations at the end of the 1960s.

Then, gradually generalized into the civil

and commercial field.

In 1985, there were around a thousand users.

In 1994, the number rose to more than two million,

and to nearly three billion, 420 million in 2016.

But the web designed by Tim Berners-Lee

and the early hackers reached its limits.

It had to evolve.

The Web 2.0 is the fruit of this upgrade.

Watchwords, interactivity, and participative.

The web becomes both technically more complex

and operationally simpler for the user.

Now the RSS flow can show on a single page,

content provided by multiple sources,

and each net user can participate in real time.

The age of the Web 2.0 is one where the use can be active,

participate, and even create.

The web is no longer considered as a collection of sites

to be visited, but as a platform that allows exchanges

between users.

It's an explosion of blogs, Wikis, photos,

and video sharing, search engine.

From the end of the 1990s, social networks appear

on the internet.

They take the form of groupings of individuals

or organizations that discuss, talk,

and exchange with each other.

They share opinions, ideas, or content.

From now on, the only existing frontier

is the community of interest.

Today, Facebook is the biggest social network site

in the world.

In December, 2015, it had more than one billion

active users daily.

Through such communities, the user is responding

to a latent and primal need to socialize.

On the internet, the tribal mechanism

finds a formidable tool.

Yesterday we were living in an imposed group, the family.

Today the importance is given to the individual.

Tomorrow the internet will take humanity into a world

where individualism will be associated with the notion

of a selected group.

Or maybe we're already there.

But that

is another story.

- [Woman] In 2015,

out of more than seven billion human beings,

three billion have access to the internet.

Every day, users spend an average of 4.4 hours

on the net.

The amount of information transmitted is astronomical.

It is not deleted.

Every word typed into a search engine, like Google,

is recorded.

Somewhere, somebody knows what searches you have done.

He knows your areas of interest,

your eating habits, your movements.

This information is captured, stored, and analyzed

with one precise aim:

to sell advertising space.

This is the reverse of the coin.

The internet is open and free,

but the people who design the sites have to make a living.

There are plenty of institutions seeking

to regulate the internet.

Some states have introduced restrictive laws.

In parallel, surveillance laws abound,

and many countries exercise tight control of the network.

Forbidden content is thus blocked in the majority

of authoritarian countries,

but also in the democracies.

Where net freedom is concerned,

China is the most restrictive country.

Recently, in reaction to the Arab Spring,

Egypt was able to cut access to the network

by applying pressure to internet providers.

Citizens were cut off from the rest of the web

within a few hours.

The internet was born out of a utopia,

a dream of hippie computer experts

seeking to change the world.

They forged a functional, sturdy, and living tool.

Driven by a vision of a free world

where everyone would be treated as equals,

faced with economical reality and the consumer society,

internet hackers were not content to persuade us

that it was possible.

They proved it.

(dramatic music)