The document discusses the origins and development of fiber optic technology and its role in enabling the internet. It describes how Albert Einstein first conceived of stimulated light emission in 1916 and how Gordon Gould later invented the laser in 1960. Gould then co-founded Optelecom to use lasers for optical communications. Breakthroughs in dense wave division multiplexing in the 1990s allowed for the "real dawn of the internet" by enabling the first commercial DWDM system in 1996, establishing fiber optic networks as the foundation of global telecommunications.