The Internet Was Wild: From AOL to AI, How 25 Years Built the Digital Control Layer

In 1999 the internet was something we logged into. Twenty-seven years later, phones, cars, cameras, satellites, databases, artificial intelligence and increasingly autonomous machines are becoming parts of one connected information environment. This is not a claim that one secret group designed the entire system. It is the opposite: governments wanted security, companies wanted data, consumers wanted convenience, intelligence agencies wanted information, police wanted better tools and technology companies wanted scale. Each layer made sense on its own. Connect the layers and something much larger appears.