This is the Modern World Chapter Notes | Year 8 English IGCSE (Cambridge) - Class 8 PDF Download

The Birth of the Internet

The internet, now an indispensable part of daily life, began as a clandestine effort to safeguard secrets during a tense era. In the 1950s, the Cold War gripped the world, pitting the United States against the Soviet Union in a silent struggle that threatened global destruction. The launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik in 1957 sent shockwaves through America, sparking fears that space-based attacks could cripple U.S. telephone lines. To counter this, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was established in 1958, giving rise to ARPAnet by 1962. Over the next decade, ARPAnet evolved, moving data between computers rather than relying on vulnerable telephone wires—a pivotal step toward the internet’s birth. By 1983, the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) gained access to ARPAnet, expanding its reach beyond military use. In 1985, engineers linked university IT departments across the U.S., democratizing networked communication. The World Wide Web as we know it took shape in 1989, thanks to Tim Berners-Lee, who developed hypertext transfer protocol (http), the backbone of web navigation. By 1995, the internet reached homes worldwide, transforming lives. Today, over three billion people use it, and its future promises even greater wonders.

Tim Berners-Lee

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a name synonymous with the internet’s revolution, is celebrated for inventing the World Wide Web in 1989. Educated at Oxford University, where he studied physics, Berners-Lee’s journey began in 1980 at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Switzerland. There, he envisioned hypertext, a global system for sharing information. By 1984, he proposed merging hypertext with the internet, laying the foundation for the web. His creation of the first web browser earned him the prestigious Turing Prize, alongside accolades like the Millennium Technology Prize, the Japan Prize, and the Die Quadriga award. In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him, bestowing the title “Sir.” Berners-Lee’s influence endures as director of the World Wide Web Consortium, guiding the web’s development, and as a professor at Oxford and MIT. His iconic moment came during the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, where he tweeted, “This is for everyone,” encapsulating his vision of a web accessible to all, a legacy that continues to shape the digital age.

Phone Problems

Mobile phones, both a blessing and a point of contention, spark varied perspectives on their impact, especially on young people. Samir, a father, shares a cautionary tale about his daughter, who received a phone at 13. The device transformed her, eroding their bond as she withdrew into a digital world of messaging and videos, neglecting real-world interactions. Her anger at his attempts to curb her usage and her eventual academic struggles led Samir to warn parents against phones, believing they irreversibly dominate children’s lives. In contrast, Liu, a media company CEO, champions phones as a boon, arguing they empower today’s youth with knowledge and connectivity. He credits his children’s academic success and engagement to mobile technology, dismissing efforts to restrict it as futile. A mother’s blog about her daughter Kylie offers a balanced view, acknowledging the shift from creative play to digital immersion. Yet, she celebrates Kylie’s ability to learn languages, cook, and engage with global issues via her phone, seeing technology as a force for good when it fosters empathy and understanding, though she remains uncertain about its overall impact.

Predicting the Future

Peering into the past’s predictions about 2020 reveals a mix of whimsy and ambition, none of which quite hit the mark. In the 1960s, *Time* magazine envisioned a world where machines handled all work, leaving humans to revel in wealth and leisure—a dream far from reality, as work persists. Ray Kurzweil’s 2005 book predicted that by 2020, technology would eliminate the need for food, feeding bodies directly and managing waste, a notion that remains science fiction, with kitchens still bustling. Arthur C. Clarke, in the same era, imagined flying houses that could relocate across towns or countries, an exciting but unrealized idea, as homes stay firmly grounded. These predictions, scoring zero for accuracy, reflect bold imaginations untethered to practical outcomes. However, Clarke’s foresight shone in his description of a “Newspad,” an electronic device for storing and reading information, eerily prescient of today’s tablets. While the future defied these wild guesses, the glimpse of a connected, information-rich world proved closer to the truth, hinting at technology’s unpredictable yet transformative path.

Humans versus Machines

In a somber reflection titled "Rise of the Machines," the narrator casts a wary eye on the encroachment of technology, a stark departure from the usual optimism about the future. Once hopeful that advancements would usher in a happier, easier life, the narrator now feels a gnawing anxiety as computers increasingly dominate existence. Machines have steadily usurped human roles, replacing workers with robots in a relentless march toward automation. Everyday reliance on technology, such as using phone maps instead of memory, is making people lazy and, worse, irrelevant. The narrator paints a chilling picture of a world where human connection might vanish, replaced by computer-mediated interactions. The ultimate fear is a reversal of roles—humans as slaves to artificial intelligence masters. With a sense of resignation, the narrator laments that resistance may be futile, as the future, shaped by the rise of machines, is already upon us, threatening to redefine humanity’s place in the world.

A Dystopian Future

Dystopian fiction, with its grim visions of oppressive futures, captivates readers by tapping into deep-seated fears. In *The Queue* by Basma Abdel Aziz, Yehya, a man in an unnamed Middle Eastern city, is wounded during the enigmatic “Disgraceful Events” and needs a bullet removed. However, a permit from the ever-growing, immobile Queue at the Gate is required, a bureaucratic nightmare where countless others seek medical approvals. Meanwhile, a media company distributes free phones, a single newspaper called *The Truth* dominates, and a journalist probes the mysteries. In *Leila* by Prayaag Akbar, set in the 2040s, Shalini and Riz live with their daughter Leila on the fringes of a divided city, where “Purity for All” has led to walled sectors guarded by the violent Repeaters. At Leila’s birthday, Repeaters attack, sending Shalini to a Purity Camp while Leila and her nanny escape. These stories reflect societal anxieties, as publisher Laika Masood explains, noting that dystopian tales resonate when people feel controlled or when society is depressed, exploring fears of lost identity and autonomy in extreme, unsettling settings.

The Glade

In James Dashner’s *The Maze Runner*, Thomas awakens in the Glade, a confined, unsettling place with no memory of how he arrived. Surrounded by towering, ivy-covered stone walls that close nightly, the Glade is a self-contained compound with a wooden building in the northwest, a grove of trees in the southwest, sprawling fields in the northeast, and noisy animals in the southeast. At its center lies the open hole of the Box, a tempting but ominous portal, and nearby, a squat concrete building with a menacing iron door, accessible only by a heavy, wheel-like handle, stirs Thomas’s curiosity and dread. Chuck guides him to the East Door, a massive six-meter gap in the wall, revealing a startling truth: the walls move, their smooth edges fitted with holes and rods that align to seal the Glade shut. Thomas is stunned, the idea of these ancient, monolithic structures shifting fills him with terror, amplifying the claustrophobic mystery of this strange, inescapable world.

Closing Doors

As Thomas grapples with the Glade’s mysteries, a sudden sight deepens his unease: a sweat-soaked boy, face flushed and clothes clinging to his body, sprints from the maze into the Glade, heading for the concrete building. Others, equally exhausted, pour in from the three other openings, their weary, ragged appearance hinting at the maze’s grueling demands. They converge at the building’s iron door, one boy straining to turn its rusty wheel handle, the metal screeching as it opens. The runners vanish inside, sealing the door behind them, leaving Thomas with goosebumps and a chilling sense of disquiet about the building’s purpose. His questions spill out—who are these runners, what’s in the building, why live in a maze?—but Chuck, tight-lipped, only signals an imminent event. A deafening boom shakes the earth, followed by a grinding crunch as the walls begin to close, the right walls sliding to seal the Doors. Thomas, stumbling backward, feels claustrophobia grip him, his lungs constricting as the Glade traps him in its shifting, suffocating embrace.