[asveikau]

I don't disagree that characterizing it as an "alien" would not have been out of place at the time.

However, it was not "confidential" in 1996. That is simply a ridiculous statement.

[aaroninsf]

It's only ridiculous if you willfully overlooking the context of the interview... which is not history of arpanet 101.

From the perspective of the Time magazine reading consumer middle class, yes, the internet just arrived fully formed, with only Compuserve and its ilk as hobbyist forerunners with hardly more uptake than CB or ham radio.

[pygy_]

s/confidential/not broadly known/ ?

I'm a tech head (learned programming in elementary school in the 80's) that grew up in a non technical family, and I discovered the internet, as most people, around 1996, when the TV news started talking about "the information highways".