Many years ago, the U.S. military became interested in a project called ARPANET. ARPANET allowed for a network of several computers to communicate with each other. This had been done before, but what ARPANET allowed was for part of the network to be blown up in a nuclear war and have the rest still communicate, where an older network would have encountered links that no longer existed. This network was used to allow scientists, university researchers, and other similar people to talk about ideas, research, data, and issues that were of shared interest. The network grew from four universities to several thousand hosts and began to pick up members of the general public, interested in person-to-person communication with electronic mail and wide discussion on specific topics through USENET. By 1991, ARPANET had been abandoned and commercial use became permitted, starting the "Internet boom."

At that point, the Internet was basically free. Companies allowing people to use their phone lines, computers, and services charged fees, but most of the users of the 'net had access through universities or could get on through a local group providing free access. The Internet was about the sharing of information and ideas, so once you were on, you were free to share anything you wanted and to get anything anybody wanted to share. An information system called gopher was set up to allow users to easily navigate through the vast amount of information to find a specific piece of information. USENET continued to grow, and other methods of free information location were set up. In short, an extremely diverse group of people from mostly capitalist countries had set up a network of information and entertainment network that was completely free to anyone who could get on.

The Internet had a sense of community, too. People could talk to one another, in either real time or through delayed messages, from anywhere on the planet. Norms and standards of behavior were set, not through a top-down hierarchy of government, but by the users and for the users. Each user had the same rights as other users and all users could do just about whatever they wanted. The only real "police force" were the people running the systems that the users accessed the net from, and they could only stop the users from breaking the rules from that particular system. But with the exception of a few people who tried to break into other systems, the community basically followed its own set of standards.

Could this be similar to the origins of human society? In the beginnings, humans grouped together to protect one another and work cooperatively to achieve more. The Internet was formed to allow researchers and others to work cooperatively. The early humans established ways of behavior and languages as the need came up, as did the Internet. When one member of the group had a technological innovation, such as fire or a tool, he shared it with the other members of the group. The 'net behaved the same way, distributing programs free of charge to facilitate the easy use of the system.

The Internet relations to early human societies do not end there, though they proceeded much faster, even relatively, on the 'net than they did in life. In the mid-1990s, the World Wide Web, an easy to use system similar but more powerful than gopher emerged into wide use. It's primary strength was it's easy to understand and use interface. This was the first graphical interface to the Internet, allowing people with little computer knowledge to use the network, where it had been previously restricted to those who could stand and understand a text-only interface. As more and more people started using the Web, companies jumped at the chance to establish their presence on this network of millions of users. Along with the sites with solely commercial purpose, came businesses that were entirely on the Œnet. Services were created that contained lots of information, but they now required payment to use. Pornography also became a large 'net industry, charging members for a "subscription" to use their site to view pornographic images. Many servers were established to allow users to search this exponentially growing network. Many of these services, or search engines, started out as free services, as the rest of the Œnet was, but soon became laden with advertisements, still allowing free use, but providing annoying advertisement banners, similar to the way that most television and radio stations earn their money.

Human society developed in a similar way. At first, everything was communal and free, all members of the society worked to better the life of the group, as otherwise they came closer to death. After a while, though, people offered their services for something another had. One would provide another with food, for instance, so that the first could receive something she wanted from the other. After many years of this trading, services were created that were only of use in this system, banks being a classic example. Both the Internet and modern western society could function without money, but money has been introduced by some who wish for maximized personal gain.

Just as in life, people on the Internet try to break the rules and norms to earn more money. Junk mail, never requested but often received, clutters most frequent Œnet users mailboxes. And many people are filling public discussion areas with advertisements that do not belong or "make money fast" schemes. Thankfully the junk mail isn't as prevalent as in life and the schemes aren't as subtle and disastrous, but they are contributing to the devolution of the Internet from a communal utopia to a capitalistic system, providing the same stuff, but in a less fun fashion.