Perhaps it was just incredibly fortunate for us that those people—Licklider, Kahn, Cerf and others—were in a position at a special time to make a dream come true. They had the ways and means to spend money, and spent it pretty wisely. Everything the pioneers did wasn’t successful—a big, expensive time-share project at MIT/Bell Labs fizzled. But like commercial ventures, what was successful was spectacularly so.
Perhaps the founding of the Internet was something like the founding fathers of this country, the constellation of minds formed at just the right moment, with just the right sensibilities. Perhaps it has nothing at all to do with which kind of organization, commercial or governmental, is the midwife. On Mar 4, 2014, at 2:50 PM, Marcus G. Daniels <mar...@snoutfarm.com> wrote: > On 3/4/14, 11:33 AM, glen wrote: >> Although I haven't participated, I think we can learn quite a bit from the >> outright generosity shown by Kickstarter participants. > To me it is important to believe there are things inherently worth doing, and > that there is someone that wants to do them and a means to get them done. > With government funding and venture capital, the money is mostly controlled > by certain types of people with certain types of values. Those kinds of > people won't pursue the diversity of possible innovations, and they aren't > the `best' in any absolute sense nor `deserve' the control they have. They > are just fit for their environment. So to me it's no more generosity than > donating to a political campaign, it's just that these technical campaigns > actually might modify the world slightly, should they succeed. > > Marcus > > > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
