The Code summary

The internet is often described as being truly democratic, an “endless frontier” of knowledge and discovery. But these descriptions hide the fact that its origins are much darker: the development of electronic communications technology is tightly bound up with the development of nuclear weapons and other technology of modern warfare. 

So how are they connected? Well, developing new technology is expensive, and requires vast resources in terms of infrastructure, money, and personnel. Those resources were made available for the creation of electronic communication devices because they were needed for war. 

How did a sleepy valley full of orchards become a global hub for electronic communication?

There’s no way to answer that question without talking about the role of Stanford University. 

Engrained within the mythology of Silicon Valley is the idea of the pioneering entrepreneur who starts with nothing and manages to make a living through sheer talent and force of will. 

But startups invariably need massive amounts of investment to succeed. And often, they’re only able to thrive thanks to generous government sponsorship in the form of tax cuts. 

Where did Silicon Valley get its name? It was coined by a journalist wanting to come up with something catchy, but it was inspired by what is perhaps still the most important invention to come out of that valley: the silicon chip.

Today, it’s hard to imagine that the earliest computers were the size of a room, and that engineers had to line up for a chance to input data on keycards, one by one. Computers were owned by major institutions and companies. The concept of having your own personal computer seemed completely unrealistic. 

The 1960s were a time of widespread social transformation. Students across the United States gathered to protest racism and discriminatory laws in support of the civil rights movement. There was also a sharp social push against war, with mass protests against the Vietnam War erupting in the later 1960s. 

The electronic communications industry wasn’t immune to these protests, of course. Armed with a newly awakened political consciousness, Stanford students started protesting against the cushy relationship between university administration and federal government, and the key role of university research labs in helping to develop weapons.

It’s one thing to proclaim that computers should be operated by ordinary people for their own ends. It’s quite another to make that practically possible. 

After all, the Altair computer kit beloved by the Homebrew Club had to be entirely self-assembled, requiring a great deal of time and a lot of technical know-how. It certainly wasn’t accessible to the average person. 

Tech companies often pride themselves on their commitment to diversity and personal freedom. Yet most are overwhelmingly male and white. But this problem is nothing new – it’s as old as the industry itself. 

Take the example of Ann Hardy. Born in 1933, Hardy was incredibly smart, and fascinated by the tech industry. She would have been a perfect tech employee – but she was blocked at every turn. In her youth, women weren’t allowed to study engineering, or participate in MBA programs.

These days, the younger among us may not remember the distinct screech of a dial-up modem connecting to a phone line to allow networking between computers.

It was a clunky and very slow way to share information, but it marked the start of a revolutionary new way to use computers for connection and communication. 

Silicon Valley has cultivated an image as a place of free-thinking innovation, benevolent employers, and pollution-free industry. But the reality is much more complicated than that. As the tech industry has grown, Silicon Valley has had to wrestle with problems that the founders of the 1950s could never have imagined. 

For one thing, the clean, smoke-free industry they trumpeted has turned out not to be clean at all. In the 1980s, it was discovered that the manufacture of all those silicon chips and other components had completely polluted the groundwater in the valley, leading to unusually high miscarriage and birth-defect rates in nearby communities. Clean-up operations continue, even as most companies have now exported the dirty work to countries like India and China, where it can be done more cheaply – and Americans won’t have to pay the consequences for the pollution produced.