You raise an interesting issue in epistemology. How do we know what we know? I leave that to people with better minds than mine. The history I did offer is from the hands of those who built the Internet, Barry M. Leiner , Vinton G. Cerf , David D. Clark, Robert E. Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Daniel C. Lynch, Jon Postel, Lawrence G. Roberts, Stephen Wolff. You may recognize one or more of their names...

It was an idea very much in the air during the 60s. The concept of a decentralized, blast proof, packet-switching network was kicked around by RAND, MIT and UCLA. The National Physical Laboratory in Great Britain set up the first test network on these principles in 1968.

Try following the links; the first is an easier read than the second, although the second has more information.
"Triumph of the Nerds" www.pbs.org/nerds/
"Short History of the Internet" http://www.forthnet.gr/forthnet/iso...ory.of.internet

After the World Wide Web and email, Usenet newsgroups are probably the most popular feature of the Internet. For a look back at where Usenet came from and its future possibilities, check out "USENET History" by Lee S. Bumgarner of James Madison University. www.vrx.net/usenet/history/

Incidentally, the origin of the Usenet newsgroup alt.sex is explained there. It turns out that alt.sex came to pass due to a typo! Yes folks, In 1988, Richard Sexton typed "lical" rather than "local" for distribution when demonstrating to Ralph Freudenberger how to new create a thread No really! That’s how it happened. www.vrx.net/usenet/history/alt.sex/

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Eudaimonia