TIL DARPANet wasn’t a government funded project… \s
Comment on Google admits the open web is in ‘rapid decline’
Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks agoYou got internet because of capitalists as well.
MattTheProgrammer@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
BilboBargains@lemmy.world 3 weeks 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.
Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
BilboBargains@lemmy.world 3 weeks 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.
Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks 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.
BanMe@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Came out of government-funded research actually. Back when we could still achieve scientific feats on behalf of our country.
Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks 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.
SmilingSolaris@lemmy.world 3 weeks 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
Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
That doesn’t undermine my argument that it was ultimately because of the capitalists that the internet spread in the first place.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 3 weeks 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
Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
We all know how it came to be, you didn’t get the point but it’s okay.
postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Talk about a grey area…
secretboston.co/…/weed-the-first-online-sale-ever…
despicable@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
And how would you know without the internet being developed under a different system at the time?
Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
That’s not an argument. I don’t need to speculate on hypotheticals when reality already proves the point.