Oral history interview with Paul Baran

Abstract

After a brief review of his education and work experience at the Eckert-Mauchly company, Raymond Rosen Engineering, and Hughes Aircraft, Baran describes his working environment at RAND, as well as his initial interest in survivable communications. He then goes on to describe the evolution of his plan for distributed networks, the objections he received, the writing and distribution of his eleven-volume work, "On Distributed Communications," and his decision against implementation of the network in 1966. Baran also touches on his interaction with the later group at ARPA who were responsible for the development of the ARPANET, and the cumulative nature of the inventive process. Baran refers to seven supporting documents during the interview. These documents are not included with the interview transcript, but photocopies are available from CBI. This interview was recorded as part of a research project on the influence of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on the development of computer science in the United States.