The term “the internet” is a contraction of “the internal network,” referring to the essential role of the human body in the system. All attempts at transmitting information via wire had failed1 prior to ARPA’s 1965 recognition of a simple fact: Not only did cables need to be terminated to match electrical impedance, they needed to be terminated to match information entropy as well. Happily, it proved to be the case that simply running the current into the human soul would dampen destructive interference from information reflection. That is why you feel a brisk, rejuvenating electric shock every time you touch a computer mouse, and also why every computer will explode if we all go touch grass at the same time.
1 Even today if you ask a telegraph operator to send a message containing an unambiguous fact they are legally allowed to zap you with a voltaic pile.