Radia Perlman, computer programmer and network engineer, has been called "the mother of the Internet". That's right, the whole Internet: cat videos, Wikipedia, Nigerian money scams, that unfortunate hamster dance from the 90s, online shopping, Russian meddling in the US election, this very website. And porn. Lots and lots of porn.

Well, Perlman is not exactly fan of the moniker, and not for the reasons you might think. She downplays her role in the creation of the Internet, stating that it has many mothers and fathers.

So what exactly was Perlman's role? She invented the Spanning Tree Protocol, which basically made Ethernet networks possible. And that pretty much led to the Internet we love to hate today.

Perhaps "the mother of the Ethernet" would be a more suitable title?