Internet founder Robert Taylor has passed away

Robert Taylor died on Thursday at the age of 85 at his home in Woodside, California. Taylor became known as one of the founders of the Internet, through his role in the development of its predecessor Arpanet.

In 1966, Taylor joined the Advanced Research Projects Agency, ARPA for short, which is part of the Pentagon. He came up with the idea of ​​connecting different computers through a network, out of dissatisfaction with the fact that he had to log in again and again at different computers, writes The New York Times. Shortly afterwards, a network was devised in which the various systems in the department could be controlled by a single computer. This eventually led to the birth of Arpanet, which is seen as the forerunner of the modern internet.

Taylor then left the US government to work for Xerox. There he was one of the founders of the Alto computer, which is regarded as one of the forerunners of the modern PC as we know it today. His career then took him to NASA, where he met scientist Douglas Engelbart. He had come up with an idea that eventually resulted in the development of the computer mouse. Taylor was involved in this by financing Engelbart’s projects.

Robert Taylor was born in 1932 in the Texas city of Dallas, and is 85 years old. He eventually died of Parkinson’s disease, leaving behind two sons and three grandchildren.