© Getty Images/Shutterstock/Public Domain

The beginnings of the internet -

As you’re reading this on a screen, you are using technology that wouldn’t be able to exist (at least it’s highly unlikely) if DARPA didn’t invent ARPANET.

© Shutterstock

ARPANET original lines of communication -

The seeds of the technology that allows us to surf the net as well as everything else on the internet were sown by the development of ARPANET, which is essentially the technological predecessor of the internet.

© Getty Images

Over 20 years before the world wide web -

The concept was originally described as an “intergalactic computer network” that allowed computers to communicate with each other. ARPANET went online in 1969 after funding was secured to develop it three years previous, but it wasn’t until around 1990 when the world wide web was developed that everybody else could get involved.

© Shutterstock

GPS -

When you’re driving around in your car using your GPS, it’s easy to assume that the technology came from whatever company made it, but that’s DARPA too!

© Shutterstock

Using satellites for navigation -

Using a constellation of satellites for navigation and tracking goes back to a concept developed by DARPA in the 1940s.

© Getty Images

The USSR releases GPS technology -

It was developed in 1973 and was only available to the US military for a decade until a Korean Airlines flight was shot down in the USSR, who then gathered what was left of the wreckage and the technology was made freely available.

© Getty Images

Galileo live since 2016 -

This technology is still what is most widely used in GPS systems around the world, although the EU’s Galileo satellite system looks promising in offering a better alternative.

© Getty Images

Siri uses CALO -

Siri, Apple’s digital virtual assistant, began as a DARPA project. Back in the early 2000s, DARPA developed CALO, an acronym for Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes.

© Shutterstock

CALO -

CALO, which also means soldier’s servant in Latin, was designed to learn, take instructions, measure, and take note of experiences.

© Shutterstock

BigDog -

BigDog, the quadruped robot created by Boston Dynamics, was funded by DARPA. For years DARPA has funded private organizations working on projects that may have practical military use.

© Getty Images

To help share the load -

The four-legged dog can travel on a wide range of terrain (including in mud, on ice, up hills, etc.), and was intended to carry heavy gear for soldiers.

© Getty Images

It's too noisy -

It satisfied all of the requirements that it was created to meet, but it has one major flaw: it is too loud for military application.

© Getty Images

Cyborg insects -

DARPA has said they’re attempting to turn real insects into cyborgs through implanting technology in them in 2006 (this photograph is not a prototype).

© Shutterstock

Insects aren't great at responding -

The results are pretty impractical and inconsistent. For example, you can stimulate a cockroach to turn left, but then it may get used to it and not respond anymore.

© Getty Images

Artificial intelligence exploration -

In 2019, they have a different plan" to use insects to develop artificial intelligence exploration (AIE) proposals.

© Shutterstock

Sea Shadow (IX-529) -

In the 1980s, DARPA teamed up with the US Navy and Lockheed Martin to develop a stealth ship, which resulted in the Sea Shadow (IX-529).

© Public Domain

Sold for parts -

The Sea Shadow (IX-529) is a boat that looks like a mix between something belonging to a Bond villain and an alien hovercraft. It could avoid radar detection, but came to an end when it was attempted to be sold to the highest bidder and nobody bid. It was eventually sold for scrap and dismantled.

© Public Domain

The mouse -

The GUI (pronounced “gooey”) and mouse that we operate computers with were developed by DARPA, too.

© Getty Images

The beginnings of the interface as we know it -

It’s been around for a lot longer than most people realize. It was first demoed in 1968, and although it was a much more basic version of the technology, it laid the framework for the interface of today.

© Getty Images

The Onion Router -

If you’ve never used a TOR browser, you’ve probably still heard of it in the context of cybercrime. The onion router (TOR) was created by DARPA.

© Getty Images

How it works -

It allows people to act anonymously on the internet by directing signals relaying through thousands of free, worldwide, and voluntary overlay networks to conceal the user's location.

© Shutterstock

The dark web -

It’s used to access the dark web. Essentially people can transfer information undetectably. Journalists often use it for transferring files and for publishing in countries with strict press laws.

© Shutterstock

HULC -

The Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC) isn’t well known, but it’s quite the piece of equipment in the military sense. Essentially it’s a hydraulic-powered exoskeleton that helps soldiers carry up to 90 kg (just under 200 lbs).

© Getty Images

It moves you for you -

When you walk, run, leap, or are just carrying something, the exoskeleton is doing the work. Its sensors can tell what movement a person intends to make, and then it moves with that person.

© Getty Images

It may have applications beyond the military -

HULC was deemed a failure for one main reason. Even though it was intended to carry its weight, it made certain movements harder and tiring to do. But it has been successfully used in the healthcare sector, for instance.

© Getty Images

HAARP -

HAARP, or the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, has been at the epicenter of many conspiracy theories for years, presumably because they investigate the Earth's upper atmosphere, the ionosphere.

© Shutterstock

What HAARP investigates -

Located in Alaska, the project is joint between the US Air Force, US Navy, DARPA, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It researches plasma trails by lightning and much more.

© Getty Images

Another project that was dropped -

They were attempting to understand how it affects radio waves and the nature of the ionosphere itself. However, the project was dropped by the US military in 2014.

Sources: (IT PRO) (DARPA)

See also: Inventors killed by their own inventions

© Getty Images