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
Comment on Google admits the open web is in ‘rapid decline’
Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months agoIt 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 6 months ago
Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
That doesn’t undermine my argument that it was ultimately because of the capitalists that the internet spread in the first place.
SmilingSolaris@lemmy.world 6 months ago
It does undermine your argument though, because you are saying that it only spread because of capitalists. I’m telling you it spread because of government funding and capitalists were just the medium by which the funding was used. The capitalist part is replaceable and unnecessary.
Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
I’m telling you it spread because of government funding and capitalists were just the medium by which the funding was used.
It doesn’t work just by you saying it. According to multiple sources, the government clearly didn’t want to fund commercial internet and largely backed out during the 90s.
The capitalist part is replaceable and unnecessary.
It doesn’t matter if you think it’s replaceable, I can make that claim too. What matters is what actually happened in reality.
Blemgo@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Could you explain how it doesn’t undermine your argument?
Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
despicable@lemmy.today 6 months ago
And how would you know without the internet being developed under a different system at the time?
Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
That’s not an argument. I don’t need to speculate on hypotheticals when reality already proves the point.
grrgyle@slrpnk.net 6 months ago
You are speculating on hypotheticals though, since no one can know for certain how things would have unfolded in a different world.
I’m not even going to argue that capitalism doesn’t get you some positive outcomes for certain people.
Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
How am I speculating when my argument is based on reality?
ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 6 months ago
The internet would not have existed without government investment. Back when the idea of the internet was being floated around in the early 1960s the US government did contact every major telecom company in the country snd all flat out refused meaning the government had to publically foot the bill (and the work).
No, capitalists would never, ever have invented the internet.
Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
And I never said that they invented the internet.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 6 months 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 6 months ago
We all know how it came to be, you didn’t get the point but it’s okay.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
I did get the point
I’m telling you that your point is wrong
Hikki88@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
Cool, I think it’s correct and to pretend that it’s otherwise won’t help when you’re in the search for truth. We can agree to disagree.
postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Talk about a grey area…
secretboston.co/…/weed-the-first-online-sale-ever…