The Meaning of Life 64
write. In the same way, once we have computer outlets in
every home, each of them hooked up to enormous libraries,
where you can ask any question and be given answers,
you can look up something you’re interested in knowing,
however silly it might seem to someone else.” What he was
talking about is known today as the Internet.^456
A primitive form of the Internet existed as early as the
1970s. But the real revolution began the same year Elon
landed in Canada, 1989. Tim Berners-Lee, who worked as
a computer researcher in Europe, wrote a program that
linked information on the Internet into what was called
World Wide Web. Four years later, Marc Andreessen and
Eric Bina developed the browser Mosaic. It’s often de-
scribed as the first graphical browser that made the Internet
more user-friendly.
Computer enthusiasts and the academic institutions
were the early adopters of the new technology. Like it
is today, the Internet back then was used to exchange
underground knowledge: how to pirate games, how to
hijack long-distance telephone services, and how to make
bombs.^122
Elon’s first exposure to the Internet took place when he
studied physics and discovered the online physics-research
community. In 1994, he thought the Internet could become
the next big thing. “I don’t remember one great Aha mo-
ment, when I suddenly had some grandiose commercial
vision – that classic story entrepreneurs are supposed to
have,” Elon said. “What happened was, in working with the
Web, I became absorbed by its astounding possibilities as a