# Did Al Gore invent the internet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 4, 2000, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-al-gore-invent-the-internet/28148 "2000-08-04T18:32:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rubes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@rubes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rubes)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-al-gore-invent-the-internet/28148/1 "2000-08-04T18:32:15Z")
Can anyone direct me to where he was quoted as saying he invented the internet? I have heard this quote/misquote often but never knew the source. thanks, rubes RUBES: the only candidate in Minneapolis endorsed by Satan ---
**Author:** ![Baglady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Baglady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baglady)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-al-gore-invent-the-internet/28148/2 "2000-08-04T19:06:14Z")
Hey Rubes – while the source is a far-right political Web site, it appears correct, anyway. From [Americans for Tax Reform](http://www.atr.org/Gore/gore2.htm): “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.” — Albert Gore on CNN’s ‘Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer’ (March 9, 1999)." Of course Gore didn’t “invent” the Internet. He was however, part of the group of politicians that passed legislation to help move its growth along. A nice history is available at [Hobbes’ Internet Timeline](http://info.isoc.org/guest/zakon/Internet/History/HIT.html). ---
**Author:** ![rubes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@rubes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rubes)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-al-gore-invent-the-internet/28148/3 "2000-08-04T19:41:16Z")
Thanks baglady. I’ll be perusing those sites a little later ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-al-gore-invent-the-internet/28148/4 "2000-08-04T21:28:20Z")
Did you see Dubbya’s acceptance speech last night? After a bunch of “If my opponent had been there when…it would’ve been…” rhetoric, he said “If he’d been there when the internet was invented…[uproarious laghter & applause for 5 minutes or so]” ---
**Author:** ![BlockHead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@BlockHead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlockHead)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-al-gore-invent-the-internet/28148/5 "2000-08-04T21:35:27Z")
One thing I’ve heard, don’t know if it’s true, is that Gore did coin the phrase “Information Superhighway”. ---
**Author:** ![Baglady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Baglady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baglady)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-al-gore-invent-the-internet/28148/6 "2000-08-04T22:56:58Z")
You’re quite right, blockhead! According to the [entry in dictionary.com](http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=information%20superhighway): information superhighway (Or “Infobahn”, “Info Strada”) The name coined by US Vice-president Al Gore in the early 1990s for the emerging high-speed global communications network capable of carrying voice, data, video and other services around the world. These services will use satellite, copper cable, optical fibre, cellular telecommunications and be accessible via set-top boxes or suitably equipped computers. ---
**Author:** ![pantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pantom)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2000, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-al-gore-invent-the-internet/28148/7 "2000-08-05T03:49:04Z")
No, no, no. It was Jorge Luis Borges. He quite literally dreamed it up. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-al-gore-invent-the-internet/28148/8 "2000-08-10T15:19:01Z")
> [@](#): > > As the media clamor arose about Gore’s supposed claim that he had invented the Internet, Gore’s spokesman Chris Lehane tried to explain. He noted that Gore “was the leader in Congress on the connections between data transmission and computing power, what we call information technology. And those efforts helped to create the Internet that we know today.” [AP, March 11, 1999] I don’t know whether you want to call that “backpedaling” or “clarification”. It is true that ARPAnet had been around for a while before that, but ARPAnet ain’t the internet. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-al-gore-invent-the-internet/28148/9 "2000-08-10T15:56:13Z")
\>\> The name coined by US Vice-president Al Gore in the early 1990s I understand he used the term often and helped popularize it but that he did not invent it. As for the Internet itself, it was not “invented” by any one person, much less Gore. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-al-gore-invent-the-internet/28148/10 "2000-08-10T17:24:59Z")
The [Washington Monthly](http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2000/0004.parry.html)’s April issue covered this and other principal Gore ‘claims’ (e.g. Love Canal, _Love Story_) that have been stretched out of recognition by not only the wingnuts, but by the mainstream press and opposing politicians.