CloudFest USA Q&A with Radia Perlman

This week’s insider convo is with Radia Perlman, currently a Fellow at Dell Technologies. Radia, often referred to as the “mother of the internet,” designed the Spanning Tree Protocol upon which the modern internet is based. Radia is also a member of both the Internet Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame

In our conversation, hear from Radia about her inventions, her proudest achievements, and which authors (both dead and alive) she’d invite for a fireside chat!

Please briefly introduce yourself to any of our readers who may not know you yet!

I happened to wind up with the ideal job at the ideal time; designing routing algorithms for large computer networks, as well as the spanning tree algorithm upon which modern Ethernet is based. My designs remain widely deployed today. Another interest of mine is applied cryptography. I work for Dell Technologies, where the CTO sometimes introduces me as “Dell’s BS detector,” a title I wear with pride. I believe designs should be as simple as possible, largely self-managing, and resilient to all sorts of faults, including trusted components behaving incorrectly. I also believe that humor is essential in everything.

Often referred to as the “mother of the internet,” you’ve been part of the infrastructure since before its invention and well before many of the latest developments. Looking back to the start of your career versus today, which developments have surprised or impressed you most?

I never expected the Internet to become as essential to civilization as it is today. This is both good and bad. Information about everything can be accessed instantly. But so can misinformation. Algorithms want to keep you engaged, so you are fed information that reinforces what you already believe. Society gets more and more polarized and angry. That being said, there are some things that seem miraculous to me. By all logic, Wikipedia should be full of hateful graffiti and misinformation, but it miraculously is a great source of concise, well-written information on a dizzying range of topics.

What would you say is the achievement of yours that you are most proud of?

I am proud of algorithms that are so simple that they just become “the way things are done.” I’m also really proud of my books. If I understand a technology, I can explain it clearly and at a technical level without drowning the reader in irrelevant details, or ill-defined jargon.

You will be on stage as part of a fireside chat at this year’s event. Taking off your interview subject hat and putting on your moderator hat, if you could program your own fireside chat with one person currently working in the industry, who would it be and why?

Cliff Stoll, author of “The Cuckoo’s Egg” (if you haven’t read it yet, stop whatever you are doing, get a copy, and read it now!). His book is about how he, at the dawn of computer networks, and before computer networking crimes were really common, tracked down a serious spy, through creative techniques that he invented such as honeypots.

Now let’s dream big. If you could program a fireside chat with any person, dead or alive, who is not currently working in this industry, who would it be and why?

Douglas Adams, author of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” One might argue that he wasn’t really “in this industry,” but I’d argue that everyone I know who is in the industry has read his books, and been shaped by them. Full of wisdom and humor. I had the privilege of attending a talk of his about his book “Last Chance to See,” educating people about endangered species. He is a mesmerizing and inspirational speaker, and would be a great panelist, except for unfortunately no longer being alive.