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The design of the Internet was heavily influenced by the US Military. They funded the initial research and development for a redundant decentralized communications system that would remain viable even in the event of a nuclear disaster. The result was the beginnings of the Internet. So why didn't they use the telehone system? The answer is simple. Telephone systems require a continuous circuit from the sender to the receiver in order to communicate. Disruptions at any point along the way stops the communication. So how did they do this? Researchers developed two breakthrough ideas. The first was a network of redundant connections controlled by devices called routers. If any line failed, the routers simply redirect the message over the network. The second idea was to divide messages into chunks called "packets". When a message is sent it is divided into packets which are transmitted individually to the same address. Upon arrival the packets are reassembled back into the original message. The genius in this design is shown in the interaction that follows. A global network using these ingenious design principles is essentially indestructible. That's the brilliance of the Internet. There is simply no single point of failure anywhere in the network that will cause the entire system to breakdown. The decentralized nature of the Internet's design also has the side benefit of making it very easy for others to connect to the network.

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