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--- start [2026/07/01 22:14] – cynic
+++ start [2026/08/11 04:08] (current) – cynic
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-====== What You Learned Is Wrong - History Is Bunk ======
+====== GeekHistory The Forgotten Geeks Who Changed the World. ======
+===== History remembers the legend. GeekHistory tells the whole story. =====
  {{:geekhistory_arpanet.jpg?400 |}}
-History is often a matter of perspective, as it is seen through different eyes the answer to the question changes.
-One of the biggest misconceptions of any type of history is when a single person is credited for a discovery. We often fail to realize that the discovery was not the work of a single person done in a void of any outside influence. Technology is an ongoing evolution of experiments and improvements. Very seldom is a new product or process in the world of technology the result of one "eureka" moment of a single inventor in a laboratory.
-Many times the person given credit for an invention is one of a number of persons who can easily be credited for the invention.
+History is often a matter of perspective. The version we remember depends on where the story begins, who tells it, and whose contributions are left out. Over time, complex journeys of innovation become simplified into tales of lone geniuses and single moments of inspiration.
+GeekHistory exists to challenge those oversimplified narratives. We explore the real, nuanced journey of human innovation by following the visionaries, inventors, engineers, entrepreneurs, and forgotten geeks whose ideas built the modern world.
+One of the biggest misconceptions of any type of history is when a single person is credited for a discovery. We often fail to realize that the discovery was not the work of a single person done in a void of any outside influence.
+Technology rarely appears because one person has a brilliant idea one afternoon. Most breakthroughs are evolutionary. Visionaries imagine what could exist. Engineers prove it's possible. Inventors solve technical problems. Entrepreneurs build industries. By the time the history books are written, most of those contributors have been condensed into a single famous name.
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 Defining an invention is a rhetorical question. Let me conclude with my own rhetorical question. Why do we fight over who gets credit for an invention, rather than honor and respect all those who have contributed in turning visions into reality?
-**Who invented the internet?**
-There are so many urban legends and so much folk lore surrounding the internet. I have read so many articles where the history of the internet is so mangled. The internet was an evolution of many different communications and technology tools coming together to create the communications system we now call the internet. There are many key players in this evolution, to give any single one credit for inventing the internet does not do justice to the many contributions that were so significant.
+**The goal of GeekHistory**
-**Who invented the television?**
+Technology doesn’t happen overnight. It doesn’t spring fully formed from the mind of a single genius. It grows through collaboration, competition, trial, error, and the stubborn persistence of people whose names never make it into the spotlight.
-Next to the internet, arguably the next most significant invention, as far as impact on the life of the average American, is the television. But how many Americans can actually tell you who invented it? There are many arguments here as well, as to who should get credit for inventing the technology used in the first commercial televisions.
-**The goal of GeekHistory**
+{{ youtube>7r35r98vyXA |Tech History's Biggest Lies: Why The Story We're Told Is Wrong }}
-My goal for my GeekHistory website is to increase awareness, educate, and entertain. We expose myths and misinformation behind urban legends and explore the science and technology history when visions became reality.
+==== GeekHistory is my attempt to correct the record. ====
-My lifelong love of history and technology comes together at GeekHistory. I began working with radios and telecommunications in the Army National Guard in the 1970s and my first certification was an FCC general class radiotelephone license. A life long evolution from field service technician for various office automation companies through my current career in systems administration and telecommunications has inspired me as a writer and web developer of technology topics.
-My first published article on "PC telecommunications" was in 1988, explaining how to use your computer plugged into the phonelines to share information.  I started teaching people about how to use the internet when it first went public in the mid 1990s.
+I’ve spent my life working with radios, telecommunications, computers, networks, and the messy evolution of the internet. From Army National Guard radio systems in the 1970s, to my first FCC radiotelephone license, to decades in field service, systems administration, and telecom—I've watched technology evolve in real time. I published my first article on PC telecommunications in 1988, taught internet basics in the mid 1990s, and registered GeekHistory.com in 2001 as a place to share the stories behind the technology.
-The idea for the website GeekHistory started out with teaching Internet and browser basics courses in 1996. Even though the internet went commercial in the mid 1990s, I would start each course with a brief history lesson showing the evolution of the internet that started in the 1960s. I registered the domain GeekHistory.com back in 2001. It was just a shell of a website for many years, just an idea bouncing around in my brain.
+I’m not a professor with a research team. I’m one geek who loves history, technology, and myth busting. GeekHistory isn’t meant to be an academic archive. It’s meant to spark curiosity, challenge assumptions, and shine a light on the many minds who turned visions into reality.
-I am not a university professor with a team of editors and advisers working with me developing a website. I am one man who loves technology and history and is amazed by how little people know about the great minds in the world of technology. Geek History is not meant to be an authoritative source for technology history. In depth discussions of the technology is kept to a minimum. We are just trying to get you to think about the many amazing people that have contributed to the work of technology.
+The more I learn, the more questions I have—and the more I want to share.
-**Setting the stage for the journey ahead.**
+Welcome to the journey.
+**A Voice With a Mission.**
-One of my inspirations for my Guru42 Universe of websites is the Oliver Wendall Holmes quote, "Man's mind once stretched never goes back to its original dimension." The more I learn about geek history, the more questions I have, and the more I want to know.
+One of my inspirations for my Guru42 Universe of websites is the Oliver Wendall Holmes quote, “Man's mind once stretched never goes back to its original dimension.” The more I learn about geek history, the more questions I have, and the more I want to know.
+I’ve spent decades working in telecom, computing, and internet technology — watching myths form in real time. GeekHistory is my way of pushing back. Not with lectures, but with stories that make you rethink everything you thought you knew about how technology came to be.
+If you’re ready to explore the real origins of the digital world, you’re in the right place.
+That's what GeekHistory is about.
+Looking past the legends.
+Following the evidence.
+And giving credit to the people whose ideas helped build the modern world—even if history left them out.
-Consider this simply an introduction, for the journey ahead. My perspective of the storyteller may bring a few new insights on the many forgotten geeks, as we explore the origins of all things geek. We'll take a look at the inventors as much as we do the inventions.
 **Up next: [[ReadMe| Read Me First]]**
@@ Line 53: / Line 71: @@
-**Up next: [[urban-legend-i-think-there-world-market-maybe-five-computers| Urban legend i think there world market maybe five computers]]**
+[[ How Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse Really Built the Electric Age | The War of the Currents: How Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse Really Built the Electric Age]]
+[[ george-westinghouse-used-tesla-power-defeat-edison-currents-war |George Westinghouse defeated Thomas Edison in War of Currents]]
-**Up next: [[ george-westinghouse-used-tesla-power-defeat-edison-currents-war |George Westinghouse defeated Thomas Edison in War of Currents]]**
-**Up next: [[ george-westinghouse-used-tesla-power-defeat-edison-currents-war |George Westinghouse defeated Thomas Edison in War of Currents]]**

Sorry if some of the pages having missing graphics or a bookmarked page is missing. We are migrating our site over to DokuWiki from Drupal. The last major overhaul of our site was in 2016, and we were due for some freshening up.

The collection of material for the study of geek history dates back to my early days in technology as far back as the 1970s. You will find specific footnotes and references on many pages with links to current websites. Anytime a claim is made, or a fact is stated from a website or blog that does not appear to have firsthand knowledge of the subject I make a note to follow up on it. I can assure you that anything I have written is based on verification of facts from a source as close to the events and individuals as possible or multiple sources of information from leading publications or references.

Differences

Footer Notes | GeekHistory Update 2026 | Major update in progress