Vint Cerf: Computer Engineering Turning Science Fiction to Science Fact
As Google's Internet Evangelist, one of the "Fathers of the Internet," Vint Cerf, recently spoke before brilliant children at Generating Genius, an educational charity supporting talented schoolchildren, and he shared with them his thoughts on the future of the internet.
Together with fellow Internet pioneer, engineer and computer scientist Robert E. Kahn, Cerf paved the technological path for the internet to become the global web that it is today. He and Kahn developed the TCP/IP, which pulsates in each connected computer in the world.
At 68, Cerf is still very much active at work, lending his expertise to Google as an 'Internet Evangelist' and to NASA, which he is helping to bring the internet into space.
Shane Richmond of UK' Telegraph reports, the Interplanetary Internet will use spacecraft that have completed their mission to create a backbone for the new network. Cerf is in this project.
"It sounds like science fiction," Cerf says, "but engineering is turning science fiction into science fact."
A child asked Cerf, "How much have you made?"
In good humour, Cerf replied, "I'm not a billionaire but I've been well looked after."
Asked about his thoughts on what lies ahead for the internet, he expressed optimism and says there are exciting things ahead.
"I wish I was eight years old because I really want to know what happens in the next 50 or 60 years," Cerf said.
In an interview with Telegraph, Cerf said it is important for "kids to be as curious as they should be," adding, "They're shielded from a lot of the way things work."