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>Governments don't and probably shouldn't The extreme irony of you writing this comment on the Internet should not go unnoticed. Are you really unaware of the

>Governments don't and probably shouldn't The extreme irony of you writing this comment on the Internet should not go unnoticed. Are you really unaware of the extent to which the government underpins all of the interesting long range research in the country?

toufka 11y ago
Exactly. The government is the only institution which reliably doles out full-sized grants (free money) for projects with horizons on the order of years. And institutional grants on the order of decades.
dekhn 11y ago
In a sense, the Internet is the poster child for this, because the alternatives funded and promoted by the telecom industry was so closed that it never grew. The rapid growth of the internet happened because the government funded it for many years (pre-ARPAnet, ARPAnet/NSFNet/etc, then Internet) before it was really ready to expand rapidly. Then, when it was growing rapidly, it funded people to study tech that allowed it to continue to grow rapidly. AT&T and ITU and others never would have been able to do this with the tech they promoted- we'd all be using 56Kbps modems to call BBSes today if they had won.
- rubber_duck 11y ago
  >AT&T and ITU and others never would have been able to do this with the tech they promoted- we'd all be using 56Kbps modems to call BBSes today if they had won. This is such a ridiculous statement I can't tell if it's sarcasm (from the post I guess not - but that's the kind og argument I'd make if I wanted to make a strawman argument on this), extreeme hyperbole or you really beleive it ?
  - dekhn 11y ago
    I've studied the history of the internet and have also talked extensively with ppl on both sides of the discussion. At best we'd still be using ISDN which isn't much better than 56kbs
  - Umn44 11y ago
    "This is such a ridiculous statement I can't tell if it's sarcasm" No it isn't you market moron, every good capitalist wants a monopoly and to give the worst possible service at the highest possible price. That's where profit comes from. Look at online DRM and videogames. Companies want to control the game to use it as a vehicle to extract money from the customer, online DRM'd games you get worse service for more money and a crappier drm ware infected game.

toufka 11y ago

Exactly. The government is the only institution which reliably doles out full-sized grants (free money) for projects with horizons on the order of years. And institutional grants on the order of decades.

dekhn 11y ago

In a sense, the Internet is the poster child for this, because the alternatives funded and promoted by the telecom industry was so closed that it never grew. The rapid growth of the internet happened because the government funded it for many years (pre-ARPAnet, ARPAnet/NSFNet/etc, then Internet) before it was really ready to expand rapidly. Then, when it was growing rapidly, it funded people to study tech that allowed it to continue to grow rapidly. AT&T and ITU and others never would have been able to do this with the tech they promoted- we'd all be using 56Kbps modems to call BBSes today if they had won.

rubber_duck 11y ago
>AT&T and ITU and others never would have been able to do this with the tech they promoted- we'd all be using 56Kbps modems to call BBSes today if they had won. This is such a ridiculous statement I can't tell if it's sarcasm (from the post I guess not - but that's the kind og argument I'd make if I wanted to make a strawman argument on this), extreeme hyperbole or you really beleive it ?
- dekhn 11y ago
  I've studied the history of the internet and have also talked extensively with ppl on both sides of the discussion. At best we'd still be using ISDN which isn't much better than 56kbs
- Umn44 11y ago
  "This is such a ridiculous statement I can't tell if it's sarcasm" No it isn't you market moron, every good capitalist wants a monopoly and to give the worst possible service at the highest possible price. That's where profit comes from. Look at online DRM and videogames. Companies want to control the game to use it as a vehicle to extract money from the customer, online DRM'd games you get worse service for more money and a crappier drm ware infected game.