Comment on Google admits the open web is in ‘rapid decline’

• BanMe@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Came out of government-funded research actually. Back when we could still achieve scientific feats on behalf of our country.

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  • Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    It was private at that time. My point is that it spread so quickly to millions of people worldwide because of capitalists—specifically the telecom companies and ISPs—stepping in. Without them, the internet could never have developed on such a scale.

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    • SmilingSolaris@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      The telecom companies got paid by the government to do it, they just as easily could have paid themselves to do it but we as a society are allergic to the idea of taking money out of the hands of poor billionaires and their potential profits

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      • Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        That doesn’t undermine my argument that it was ultimately because of the capitalists that the internet spread in the first place.

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    • phoenixz@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      No it wasn’t

      First connections were between universities. Tim Berners-Lee at CERN then came up with web pages to easier share information

      There was nothing capitalist about the internet back then

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      • Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        We all know how it came to be, you didn’t get the point but it’s okay.

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      • postmateDumbass@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Talk about a grey area…

        secretboston.co/…/weed-the-first-online-sale-ever…

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    • despicable@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      And how would you know without the internet being developed under a different system at the time?

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      • Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        That’s not an argument. I don’t need to speculate on hypotheticals when reality already proves the point.

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• MattTheProgrammer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  TIL DARPANet wasn’t a government funded project… \s

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• BilboBargains@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  We got internet thanks to scientists and engineers. No amount of capitalists, politicians, managers or business people can create an internet. They say ‘here’s some money to make stuff’ and that’s the limit of their involvement.

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  • Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    already clarified here

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    • BilboBargains@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      You could make the argument that nothing can be achieved without being able to dedicate the time required. That was the miracle of the agricultural revolution, we could do something with our time other than gather food. If you said ‘we got the internet thanks to farmers’ that would be indisputable, everything flowed from that. I don’t see why an internet couldn’t emerge in other economic contexts because internet technology depends on physics and those laws transcend any and all economic systems. We already know this because almost every jurisdiction has the internet.

      The influence of capitalism on the internet has been a mixed bag. e-commerce: good. App ecosystem: ranging from good to addiction health crisis. Walled gardens and enshitification: bad. Misinformation and radicalisation of political groups: dire, potentially an existential threat.

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      • Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        If you said ‘we got the internet thanks to farmers’ that would be indisputable, everything flowed from that.

        And why not? Philosophically, a strong argument can be made that the Agricultural Revolution laid the groundwork for everything we know today, including the internet. I don’t see why admitting that would be a problem as it’s simply the truth.

        I don’t see why an internet couldn’t emerge in other economic contexts because internet technology depends on physics and those laws transcend any and all economic systems. We already know this because almost every jurisdiction has the internet.

        I never disputed that it couldn’t be done, but it’s still a hypothetical. The reality is that capitalists stepped in, and the internet spread like wildfire. Could it be done in other scenarios? Maybe. But pointing out reality shouldn’t be inconvenient.

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