JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
If you defined the internet as a transporting device for vast amounts of information and data then perhaps Abdul Kassem Ismael (938-995), the Grand Vizier of Persia, produced such a thing over one thousand years ago. I found the story in Albert Manguel's A History of Reading (a fabulous book published in 1996), who relates that when the Vizier traveled he did so with his library. That was an enormous effort, as ther were 117,000 volumes in the library, all of which were packed up onto 400 camels, and sent on their way.
[Source, here]
That camel train--which I imagine must've been 1.5 miles long--was piloted by 400 drivers, and then attended to by an entirely different camel train of support of food and water for the perhaps other 400 people traveling in support, making the whole enterprise 2 miles long or more. The books were all arranged alphabetically, so the drovers maneuvered their camels in a certain way, making them mobile librarians in their way.
In any event, the whole movement of that vast library 1000 years ago can romantically be seen as a sort of internet--for one man.
It seems that this is a mostly not-true story/interpretation of a near-event, but I'm running with the interpretation.
Comments