# Memorandum For Members and Affiliates of the Intergalactic Computer Network

Licklider's memo naming a shared, interconnected community of computers — a rhetorical precursor to the internet.

## Summary

Half-joking in its title, [Licklider](/wiki/licklider.md)'s memo to colleagues working on advanced computing posed the practical questions of how independently developed machines and groups could share programs, data, and language across a network. As head of ARPA's computing office, Licklider was positioned to seed the research that became ARPANET.

## Why it matters

The "Intergalactic Computer Network" is the imaginative seed of internetworking: many autonomous systems cooperating without a central owner. That autonomy-with-interoperation is precisely the posture the Independent Internet and [decentralization](/wiki/decentralization.md) return to.

> Part of the AP0110.ORG source library. See the [wiki overview](/wiki.md).

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*Full source text: [read the original document](/docs/licklider-memo.md).*