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That's great, but it doesn't answer the question. The World Wide Web was eight years old when work on the LHC began. (I didn't need the history lesson, btw. I

That's great, but it doesn't answer the question. The World Wide Web was eight years old when work on the LHC began. (I didn't need the history lesson, btw. I remember very well when that protocol was introduced.) Further, while I'm not trying to take away from Berners-Lee's invention of a new protocol for it, CERN did not invent the Internet. Lots of us were sending email and downloading files and chatting on IRC before http was created. And it probably is, in fact, an exaggeration to say that http created trillions of dollars of economic value. The stuff that gets sold on Amazon and eBay and through Google ads mostly existed before the invention of http, and some of it may even have existed before the internet. Had http not been created, it is not hard to imagine a world where people still got their advertising through tv and magazines. And isn't that the main funding source for internet companies, and the main economic value that has been created -- advertising, I mean? I don't think it amounts to trillions of dollars yet.

CamperBob2 9y ago
That's great, but it doesn't answer the question. Without a time machine, it's impossible to answer the question. As the old cliche goes, if they knew what they were doing, it wouldn't be called "research." The World Wide Web was eight years old when work on the LHC began As with any large-scale project, the planning and design processes began long before the first shovel hit the earth. Lots of us were sending email and downloading files and chatting on IRC before http was created. ... And it probably is, in fact, an exaggeration to say that http created trillions of dollars of economic value. Sure. Because Facebook and eBay and Google and Amazon and Wikipedia could have been built on IRC and Gopher. CERN did not invent the Internet. No one said they did. You might as well argue that CERN didn't invent fiber optics or copper wire. The Internet is not the WWW... but you knew that. And isn't that the main funding source for internet companies, and the main economic value that has been created -- advertising, I mean? The movement of information from one mind to another is not a zero-sum game. Reducing the economic value of the WWW to its present value as an advertising vehicle is misguided, if not downright fallacious, but you probably knew that as well. We won't go into the irony of using machines built with ICs fabricated on nanometer-scale processes to argue about the potential future value of fundamental physics research.

CamperBob2 9y ago

That's great, but it doesn't answer the question. Without a time machine, it's impossible to answer the question. As the old cliche goes, if they knew what they were doing, it wouldn't be called "research." The World Wide Web was eight years old when work on the LHC began As with any large-scale project, the planning and design processes began long before the first shovel hit the earth. Lots of us were sending email and downloading files and chatting on IRC before http was created. ... And it probably is, in fact, an exaggeration to say that http created trillions of dollars of economic value. Sure. Because Facebook and eBay and Google and Amazon and Wikipedia could have been built on IRC and Gopher. CERN did not invent the Internet. No one said they did. You might as well argue that CERN didn't invent fiber optics or copper wire. The Internet is not the WWW... but you knew that. And isn't that the main funding source for internet companies, and the main economic value that has been created -- advertising, I mean? The movement of information from one mind to another is not a zero-sum game. Reducing the economic value of the WWW to its present value as an advertising vehicle is misguided, if not downright fallacious, but you probably knew that as well. We won't go into the irony of using machines built with ICs fabricated on nanometer-scale processes to argue about the potential future value of fundamental physics research.