Conversations with a pioneer: Paul Baran in his own words

ABSTRACT

This interview is based on two conversations the author had with Paul Baran in 2004 and 2010. The 2010 conversation represents one of last times Baran participated in an interview before his death in March 2011. Topics discussed include how Baran drew upon inspiration from Warren McCulloch's work on neural networks to bring distributedness to communication networks and how this led to Hot Potato Routing, which later became known as packet switching. The latter, being an foundational part of Internet technology, has placed Paul Baran firmly in the histories of networking and the Internet, even if the origins of packet switching are hotly contested – a topic that is also discussed in the conversations. Finally, Baran also shares his views on technological development and determinism and what the future for the Internet holds.

KEYWORDS:

• Internet
• packet switching
• distributed networks
• ARPANET
• Paul Baran
• Donald Davies
• Leonard Kleinrock
• RAND corporation
• Technological determinism

Notes

1. B-265 was in fact not classified, but designated “For Official Use Only”, which meant it was only available to RAND employees and employees Department of Defense. It has since been made publicly available.