Internet turns 40

In this undated image provided by Computer Scientists Leonard Kleinrock, the scientist poses with the first Interface Message Processor. Kleinrock never imagined Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube that day 40 years ago when his team gave birth to what is now taken for granted as the Internet. -- PHOTO: AFP

LOS ANGELES - TECHNOLOGY and media stars, pundits, and entrepreneurs joined the Internet's father on Thursday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his culture-changing child.

'It's the 40th year since the infant Internet first spoke,' said University of California, Los Angeles, professor Leonard Kleinrock, who headed the team that first linked computers online in 1969.

Kleinrock led an anniversary event at the UCLA campus that blended reminiscence of the Internet's past with debate about its future.

'There is going to be an ongoing controversy about where we have been and where we are going,' said Arianna Huffington, co-founder of the popular news and blog website that bears her name.

'It is not just about the Internet; it is about our times. We are going to need desperately to tap into the better angels of our nature and make our lives not just about ourselves but about our communities and our world.' -- AFP