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   Existential Comics (existentialcomics@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 03-May-2025 03:52:54 JST Existential Comics

   Capitalism didn't give us the internet.

   Large-scale cooperation, open protocols, and free software gave us the internet. Capitalism gave us mobile sites that don't work because fifteen ads cover the screen.

   • Embed this notice
     cy (cy@fedicy.us.to)'s status on Monday, 19-May-2025 14:09:57 JST cy

     in reply to

     • Jaycosm🔆
     • Light
     I'm pretty sure capital is about owning people more than machines. You loan people money to buy a bunch of machines, and that money you loaned is capital. Investment capital, to be specific. Capital = leverage. It is true that capitalists use their leverage to control the means of production, but it's possible to control it without capitalism. i.e. NASA.
     
     That's what I'm going on. I could very well be completely wrong.
     
     CC: @jay@mastodon.gamedev.place
     
   • Embed this notice
     cy (cy@fedicy.us.to)'s status on Monday, 19-May-2025 14:09:58 JST cy

     in reply to

     • Jaycosm🔆
     Depends what you call "innovation." I certainly agree that we all got stuck using SSL because of capitalism. Mom & Pop Restaurants aren't capitalist though. They just own* a building and sell food.
     
     * more likely they lease a building from a capitalist
     
   • Embed this notice
     Light (light@noc.social)'s status on Monday, 19-May-2025 14:09:58 JST Light

     in reply to

     • Jaycosm🔆
     • cy

     @cy
     >they aren't capitalist though
     >they own the means of production
     Wat?
     @jay

   • Embed this notice
     Jaycosm🔆 (jay@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Monday, 19-May-2025 14:10:00 JST Jaycosm🔆

     in reply to

     • cy

     @cy I never had those. I was just making a point of the tech that led to the modern Web, browsers, and its advancements - it wasn't all work done by non-profits. There were corporations involved, and that work led to other innovation in the Internet industry.

     I used Archie on UNIX to access content on the Internet before Mosaic existed. I don't think I participated in any online news / user groups at the time.

     I believe capitalism can be positive if used properly, like a mom & pop restaurant.

   • Embed this notice
     cy (cy@fedicy.us.to)'s status on Monday, 19-May-2025 14:10:01 JST cy

     in reply to

     • Jaycosm🔆
     Just saying your experience may not have been the full story. The Internet didn't start with Compuserv / Prodigy Online.
     
   • Embed this notice
     Jaycosm🔆 (jay@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Monday, 19-May-2025 14:10:02 JST Jaycosm🔆

     in reply to

     • cy

     @cy @existentialcomics I was there too.

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     cy (cy@fedicy.us.to)'s status on Monday, 19-May-2025 14:10:04 JST cy

     in reply to

     • Jaycosm🔆
     The Internet was created by large-scale cooperation, open protocols, and free software. Capitalists stole that, called it The World Wide Web, and pretended they created it. The rest of us were on newsgroups, bulletin boards, and mailing lists, and never heard of Hypercard.
     
     CC: @existentialcomics@mastodon.social
     
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     Jaycosm🔆 (jay@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Monday, 19-May-2025 14:10:05 JST Jaycosm🔆

     in reply to

     @existentialcomics Internet? 👀 I'll search for it on Yahoo! Is that why my AOL account only has some dude named bgates on it? AOL was basically AppleLink on steroids. Apple was trying to launch eWorld at the time also... and HyperCard, the original Web interface. So, capitalism is responsible for a lot of tech behind the current Web. Capitalism in the right hands can accomplish a lot of good things. It's the people who abuse it who are the problem. 'Got a notification on CompuServe - 'gotta go!

   • Embed this notice
     Light (light@noc.social)'s status on Monday, 19-May-2025 14:14:16 JST Light

     in reply to

     • Jaycosm🔆
     • cy

     @cy
     WWW started at CERN
     @jay @existentialcomics

   • Embed this notice
     cy (cy@fedicy.us.to)'s status on Monday, 19-May-2025 14:14:16 JST cy

     in reply to

     • Jaycosm🔆
     • Light
     Look into Tim Berners-Lee sometime. He did work at CERN when he proposed HTML and such. He's huge on microtransactions, getting people to pay for stuff over the net. Initially HTML was supposed to charge you for every link you followed, until someone pointed out that was utterly barking mad.
     
     CC: @jay@mastodon.gamedev.place @existentialcomics@mastodon.social