Pointing to life in a dotty world

How the once-humble dot — see the end of this sentence — underwent a revolution with the advent of the worldwide web more than three decades ago. It used to signify the end of the matter, but the opposite became the case: its role went from full stop to full ahead.

Of course, it was thanks to the inventor of the worldwide web, the computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee, at CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research), in 1990–91. He enabled the expansion into a medium for divers business and social uses of what was, previously, a ‘network of networks’ employed by research and academic institutions.

The worldwide web came into general public use, with websites becoming available for everyday interaction, in 1993.

Then, rather like the mere point, or singularity, from which scientists say the universe erupted in the Big Bang billions of years ago, that digital dot opened up a whole universe of information and ideas. And like the universe, the worldwide web is still expanding, well past the point of no return.

Also, and suddenly, the tiny visual point, which was previously enveloped in silence (except in pre-electronic age dictation by bosses to secretaries and newspaper reporters to copytakers), gained aural ascendancy with the ubiquitous www-dot in website addresses. Such addresses are now dotted over all…