It鈥檚 not every day that an individual considered to be a 鈥楩ather of the Internet鈥� comes to the 51福利 (51福利), but when he does, he is met with an electrifying intimacy and candid discourse.
Vint Cerf, Google鈥檚 鈥楥hief Internet Evangelist鈥� and Vice President, spoke with hundreds of 51福利 students, faculty and staff March 5 at a jam-packed King Auditorium for the latest in the Secretary of the Navy Guest Lecture series. Through a t锚te-脿-t锚te with Dr. Peter Denning, 51福利 Computer Science Department Chair, and an extensive audience Q&A, Cerf took on a wide range of topics 鈥� from the Internet鈥檚 creation to Russian cyber hacking to gender inequality 鈥� replete with personal anecdotes.
鈥淭he Internet has turned out to be a pretty amazing tool,鈥� Cerf said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 extremely open, it invites new inventions, but we should be very thoughtful about what we ask artificial systems to do.鈥�
Cerf is perhaps best known for his 1973 invention of TCP/IP protocols, the fundamental technology which makes the Internet possible.
Together with Robert Kahn, Cerf developed TCP/IP for the U.S. military to allow networked communications between computers so they could share information. This system, called Internet, laid the groundwork for the application of virtually every aspect of modern technology: Wi-Fi, the World Wide Web, e-mail, cell phones 鈥�
鈥淲e participated in the development of the ARPANET and packet switching technology in order to achieve a computer resource-sharing objective, and it worked,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hat was exciting about that is that we demonstrated that different brands of computers could be made to communicate with each other.鈥�
The ARPANET鈥檚 email application transcended military and scientific domains into the commercial realm. The Internet extended ARPANET鈥檚 concepts to embrace the interconnection of heterogeneous packet switched networks leading to a global infrastructure, a network of networks.
The Internet saw an explosion of general public interest in the early 1990s after the invention of the World Wide Web and browser interfaces, which rendered Internet content as if one were reading a magazine.
鈥淚n fact, there was so much interest that people voluntarily poured huge amounts of information into the Internet, not to get paid for it, but just because they wanted to know that other people found what they knew to be of interest and useful,鈥� Cerf said.
鈥淚t was this desire to share information which I found quite surprising and unexpected.鈥�
However, such openness has also had a dark side. Cyber-criminals challenge our national and international legal jurisdictions, and foreign adversaries manipulate social networks to interfere with elections and provoke anxiety.
As a country, we鈥檙e now faced with the desire to stay as open as possible to give our population freedom of access to information and freedom to share, while at the same time trying to fend off the side effects of publicly accessible networking tools, Cerf said.
鈥淪o here we are today. It鈥檚 2018, and we鈥檝e also discovered that the general population is not uniformly nice to each other, and that there are some parts of that population that don鈥檛 have our best interests at heart,鈥� he said.
The only way to overcome this is to cultivate critical thinking, Cerf noted. The ability to discern between what content should be accepted and what should be rejected is of paramount importance, and one which can be obtained through computational thinking: breaking down problems, asking questions to solve them, and putting things back together again.
鈥淜ids should be asking, 鈥榃here did this information come from? Who put it there and why? Is there any corroborating evidence that this information is valid or not?鈥� We should all be asking ourselves those questions,鈥� Cerf said.
Cerf also expressed fear of an impending Digital Dark Age.
Preservation of human knowledge is at risk as rapid technological advancement swiftly obsoletes forms of digital records, whether through physical decay of media or through antiquated hardware and software to read them.
鈥淚 get so worried when people say 鈥業 digitized all the family photographs; I鈥檓 going to throw away the originals.鈥� I鈥檓 thinking, 鈥榊ou better not, those originals will last 150 years, the digital versions 10 if you鈥檙e lucky,鈥欌�� he said.
Additionally, Cerf addressed concerns over the proliferation of the 鈥榠nternet of things鈥� 鈥� the wired and wireless integration of everyday devices, from coffee makers to home security systems to insulin injections 鈥� and anxiety over rapid advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The fundamental issue is how much autonomy we entrust to these systems, he said.
鈥淚 see these as tools to augment our capabilities, and people who worry that they will sort of take over should be worried, not about artificial intelligence but the autonomy we grant to that software: what decisions it is allowed to make and should we permit it to make those decisions.鈥�
Following the conversation with Denning, Cerf fielded questions from 51福利 students.
Dialogue touched on a variety of subjects ... the rapid expansion and censorship of Chinese Internet use, aversion to cryptocurrency and block chains, as well as the ability of a computer to distinguish between human and computer interactions.
Also discussed was the current public debate over net neutrality, and Cerf provided an insider鈥檚 overview of the Federal Communication Commission鈥檚 historic attempts to mitigate Internet access between cable and telecommunications companies.
Following decades of oscillation on whether or not to regulate the Internet, service providers are now under no obligation to observe any neutrality and are free to interfere with the subscriber鈥檚 service.
鈥淪o here we are today: the consumers are at risk, and I鈥檓 hopeful that at some point we will recognize that as a serious problem,鈥� he said.
The final question of the event centered on Google鈥檚 firing of software engineer James Damore.
Damore circulated an internal memo in which he claimed that because women exhibited a 鈥渟tronger interest in people鈥� and 鈥渘euroticism,鈥� they were less suited to computer science careers.
This prompted a public outcry and media scrutiny on Google鈥檚 efforts to promote diversity. It also hit a nerve with Cerf, who reflected on his personal experience. Fifty years ago, women made up fifty percent of the field, but this statistic shifted significantly over time.
This was due, Cerf said, to 鈥渁 bunch of hormone-filled young jerks鈥� thoughtlessly driving young women away.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 blame the women for walking away, but dammit, I don鈥檛 want to see that happen anymore,鈥� he said emphatically, which was immediately met with thunderous applause from the audience.