> In fact, the entire history of the computer industry was radical openness, which led to a lot of innovation, which later led to closing it down. I am under t

> In fact, the entire history of the computer industry was radical openness, which led to a lot of innovation, which later led to closing it down. I am under the impression that already by early 70s, political scientists were deeply considering the impact of information systems on society. The following are 1970 and 1971, and I can only assume the brain trusts at e.g. RAND were considering all these matters long before the pseudo-hippie public unveiling of these incredible tools for surveillance and social conditioning. I am not saying Cerf et al were aware of all this, but way above their pay grade there were clearly individuals and institutions considering the advent of the information society. https://archive.org/details/betweentwoagesam00brze_0 https://archive.org/details/betweentwoagesam00brze_0 https://www.jstor.org/stable/213404 https://www.jstor.org/stable/213404 p.s. the point being that the "closing it down" bit was possibly always in the cards. Effectively a bait and switch.