I believe that the Internet is:
The concept expoused in Macroscope
by Piers Anthony, a science fiction novel published in 1969.
from page 151:
"What are you looking for?" Afra asked. "Is there something that will help us right now?"
"Yes. Apparently it's a common problem. Surviving strong acceleration, I mean. This extragalactic station has it all spelled out, but it's pretty complicated."
"I still don't see why." Afra said petulantly. She was less impressive when frustrated, becoming almost childlike. "It doesn't make sense to send out a program when you know you'll be dead long before it can be answered. Three million years! The entire culture, even the memory of the species must be gone by now!"
"That's why," Ivo said. "The memory isn't gone. because everyone who picks up the program will know immediately how great the species was. It's like publishing a book -- even paying for it yourself, vanity publishing. If it's a good book, if the author really has something to say people will read it and like it and remember him for years after he is dead."
"Or making a popular record," Groton agreed. "When it is recorded is much less important than how much it moves the listener."
"But there'll never be any feedback!" Afra protested.
"It isn't for feedback. Not that kind. These civilizations are publishing for posterity. They don't need to worry about greatness in their own time or stellar system, they know what they have. But greatness for the ages, measured against the competition of the universe -- that's something that only the broadcasting can achieve for them. It's their way of proving that they have not evolved in vain. They have left the universe richer than they found it."
"I suppose that's possible," she said dubiously.
"Maybe you have to be an artist at heart to feel it," Ivo said. "I'd like nothing better than to leave a monument like that after me. Knowledge -- what better way can you imagine than that?"
This is what I feel that the Internet is and I hope my web site reflects that philosophy.