Ray Tomlinson invented email in 1971 to make the Internet useful.

Evidence

In 1971, a thirty-year-old computer scientist named Ray Tomlinson, working in the outskirts of Cambridge, Massachusetts, took on an interesting assignment. Working at the government contractors Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN), near Fresh Pond, he was asked, roughly, to find something that might make the newly operational Internet useful to people. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 639

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Internet emerged from US defense and NSF supercomputing infrastructure. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2548; Rex and Tomlinson defined underclass as systematic disadvantage plus separate organization — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2165

Broader Connections

• Rex and Tomlinson defined underclass as systematic disadvantage plus separate organization #responds-to (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2165
• The Internet emerged from US defense and NSF supercomputing infrastructure. #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2548