This paper examines the ideological and policy consensus that shaped computing research funded by the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) within the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). This historical case study of the period between Sputnik and the creation of the ARPANET shows how military, scientific, and academic values shaped the institutions and relations of a foundational period in the creation of the Internet.
The paper probes three areas: the ideology of the science policy consensus, the institutional philosophy of IPTO under J. C. R. Licklider, and the ways that this consensus and philosophy shaped IPTO research in the period leading to the creation of the ARPANET. By examining the intellectual, cultural, and institutional details of the consensus that governed IPTO research between 1957 and 1969, we can understand the ways that these values defined the range of possibilities for network computing.