⚡️Who Invented Email?
@takebackourtech

I was recently introduced to the work of V.A Shiva Ayyadurai, systems scientist, outspoken activist and the inventor of email at 14 years old. He was the first to coin the term in 1978 and create an email system based it on the inter-organizational paper-based mail system that used pneumatic tubes. Its from this system where we adopted the email headers From/To/CC.

His copyright for email was recognized in 1982, which I was able to find on the US Copyright Office database.

In 1971 Raymond Tomlinson was working on the Department of Defense's ARPANET, later on he received credit for creating email.

From Dr. Shiva's site:

John Vittal, one of Tomlinson's contemporaries and another "internet pioneer," unequivocally described these early simple systems as rudimentary and incomplete:
“The very simple systems [including] SNDMSG... did not integrate the reading and creation functions, had different user interfaces, and did not provide sufficient functionality for simple message processing.” [John Vittal, 1981]

Tomlinson, by his own admission, said his modification was a "no brainer." Fourteen-year-old Shiva Ayyadurai, in contrast, wrote 50,000 lines of original software code that implemented numerous features and functions to replicate the entire interoffice mail system, with a very easy-to-use-interface enabling anyone to use the system. This is email --- the email we all know and experience today.

This is not to say that someone else would not have created email, given the march of technology history to integrate computing with office automation. However, the fact remains, Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai was the first to do it. The conflation of Tomlinson's modification to SNDMSG as "email," is a deliberate marketing campaign to enhance the brand value and reputation of Tomlinson's employer, Raytheon/BBN, in the lucrative cybersecurity market (see below).

What do y'all think? I'm quite a fan of him and how he fought for his creations and how outspoken he is on corruption. He was kicked out of India for exposing the main scientific body, and he has been calling out false prophets like Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, Trump which is a move I applaud.

A recent TFTP interview with him here: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/podcast/podcast-dr-shiva-ayyadurai-false-heroes-the-swarm-how-the-elite-rule-the-world

I'll be reaching out to Dr. Shiva for an interview! I'm interested to hear his take on the future of the internet, the impending tyranny, and what we can do to stop it

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