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It’s more like inventing the bicycle and then having it evolve into a car, where your initial idea was for a safe, economical, sustainable way to get from on po

It’s more like inventing the bicycle and then having it evolve into a car, where your initial idea was for a safe, economical, sustainable way to get from on point to another. Instead we paved over all the sidewalks with freeways to make room insanely large vehicles that crash into each other and kill everyone involved. Sure, they get from one point to another faster and help you transport things larger than you imagined and further than you imagined... but that’s not why you designed the bicycle.

briandear 7y ago
Bicycles didn’t evolve into cars, horses and stagecoaches did.
- SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
  Proving what I’ve always said, that bicycles are the chimpanzees of the transportation world. But yea, the overall idea here that this guy had the ANY IDEA of what the internet would/could become when he worked on it is ridiculous. It doesn’t make his opinion worth too much other than for a clickbait headline.
airstrike 7y ago
That's still not a valid argument. You're minimizing the amazing benefits created by near instantaneous transportation (or communication, in the case of the internet). How many lives were saved because ambulances exist? It's easy to cherry pick the pros and cons of any invention, but at the end of the day any attempt to do so is inherently biased. Society continues to evolve with nearly every economic and welfare indicator scoring better than 10, 50, 100 years ago. On average, inventions like automobiles and global communications must be contributing to this net positive societal gain. There's nothing glaringly bad about the internet or automobiles. Even if the internet is used for bad things at times, it's also created a shitload of good. Regardless, it is but a means to an end. People would do go on to do good or bad things even if the internet didn't exist, so we can't blame this one invention for the actions of humans.
- themagician 7y ago
  It’s not an argument, and it is valid. It’s just not the argument you’re trying to make.
jjoonathan 7y ago
You know we truly live in amazing times when our society can support a large class of people so far removed from the need to produce and transport physical goods that they can imagine a scenario in which the ability to do so using machines rather than armies of peasants, slaves, and pack animals is some kind of perversion.
- Karrot_Kream 7y ago
  Huh I didn't realize freight trains were armies of peasants, slaves, and pack animals.

briandear 7y ago

Bicycles didn’t evolve into cars, horses and stagecoaches did.

SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
Proving what I’ve always said, that bicycles are the chimpanzees of the transportation world. But yea, the overall idea here that this guy had the ANY IDEA of what the internet would/could become when he worked on it is ridiculous. It doesn’t make his opinion worth too much other than for a clickbait headline.

airstrike 7y ago

That's still not a valid argument. You're minimizing the amazing benefits created by near instantaneous transportation (or communication, in the case of the internet). How many lives were saved because ambulances exist? It's easy to cherry pick the pros and cons of any invention, but at the end of the day any attempt to do so is inherently biased. Society continues to evolve with nearly every economic and welfare indicator scoring better than 10, 50, 100 years ago. On average, inventions like automobiles and global communications must be contributing to this net positive societal gain. There's nothing glaringly bad about the internet or automobiles. Even if the internet is used for bad things at times, it's also created a shitload of good. Regardless, it is but a means to an end. People would do go on to do good or bad things even if the internet didn't exist, so we can't blame this one invention for the actions of humans.

themagician 7y ago
It’s not an argument, and it is valid. It’s just not the argument you’re trying to make.

jjoonathan 7y ago

You know we truly live in amazing times when our society can support a large class of people so far removed from the need to produce and transport physical goods that they can imagine a scenario in which the ability to do so using machines rather than armies of peasants, slaves, and pack animals is some kind of perversion.

Karrot_Kream 7y ago
Huh I didn't realize freight trains were armies of peasants, slaves, and pack animals.