Gore was one of the
Atari Democrats who were given this name due to their "passion for technological issues, from biomedical research and genetic engineering to the environmental impact of the "
greenhouse effect."
[26] On March 19, 1979 he became the first member of Congress to appear on
C-SPAN.
[46] During this time, Gore co-chaired the Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future, along with
Newt Gingrich.
[47] In addition, he has been described as having been a "genuine nerd, with a geek reputation running back to his days as a futurist
Atari Democrat in the House. Before computers were comprehensible, let alone sexy, the poker-faced Gore struggled to explain artificial intelligence and fiber-optic networks to sleepy colleagues."
[26][48] Internet pioneers
Vint Cerf and
Bob Kahn have also noted that, "as far back as the 1970s, Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth and the improvement of our educational system. He was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship [...] the Internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1983. When the Internet was still in the early stages of its deployment, Congressman Gore provided intellectual leadership by helping create the vision of the potential benefits of high speed computing and communication. As an example, he sponsored hearings on how advanced technologies might be put to use in areas like coordinating the response of government agencies to natural disasters and other crises."
[49] As a Senator, Gore began to craft the
High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991 (commonly referred to as "The
Gore Bill") after hearing the 1988 report
Toward a National Research Network submitted to Congress by a group chaired by
UCLA professor of computer science,
Leonard Kleinrock, one of the central creators of the
ARPANET (the ARPANET, first deployed by Kleinrock and others in 1969, is the predecessor of the Internet).
[50][51][52] The bill was passed on December 9, 1991 and led to the
National Information Infrastructure (NII) which Gore referred to as the "
information superhighway."
[53]
