Ray Tomlinson, Inventor Of Modern Email

Raymond Tomlinson, the inventor of modern email and selector of the "@" symbol, has died.

Email existed in a limited capacity before Tomlinson, in that electronic messages could be shared amid multiple people within a limited framework. But until his invention in 1971 of the first network person-to-person email, there was no way to send something to a specific person at a specific address. The first email was sent on the ARPANET system, a computer network that was created for the US government that is considered a precursor to the Internet. Tomlinson also contributed to its development. At the time, few people had personal computers. The popularity of personal email wouldn't take off until years later but has become an integral part of modern life. "It wasn't an assignment at all, he was just fooling around; he was looking for something to do with ARPANET," Raytheon spokeswoman Joyce Kuzman said. Tomlinson once said in a company interview that he created email "mostly because it seemed like a neat idea."