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View Full Version : Is government the only solution to finding information from millions of computers?




Elwar
11-01-2011, 11:20 AM
Imagine we are in 1995 and someone starts looking at this "World Wide Web" thing and proposes something.

What if we were able to take all of the information on anyone's computer that wanted to share that information and create something that allows someone to type in a few key words and get lists of that information for their own use.

A lot of people would think that the government should be the answer. That the government is the only thing with the resources and capability to create billions of dollars worth of databases that allow for quick searches of the whole Internet.


Imagine if the government had begun back then what Google has done.

Imagine if the federal government was the only search engine of the country and did everything that you can do with google or any other search engine. They offer it for free and have no advertising. It is not the best solution, it has a lot of kinks and does not always give you what you want but it is the only solution and it is critical to most of your Internet use. Though it never really advances from its original state.

Now imagine someone saying that we should end the income tax. And imagine those hearing that saying "what about the web search!?! Businesses would collapse, we would be stuck with computers that are useless without being able to find information on the Internet."

So you say that private business could probably handle it better.

Their response would be something like "So you are going to have a private corporation in charge of getting information to your computer? How would they make money, what if they want to block your access to information or charge huge fees. And what, are you going to have to fill out your credit card information and pay for every web search? I don't want some corporation knowing what things I search for or where I go. Building something that huge would end up with a monopoly or an oligarchy that would control all information which would be worse than a democratically elected government where we at least have our vote to keep them in line."

People with limited knowledge of computer systems or how such a huge thing would work try to come up with ways that such a system could make money or propose ideas or small scale examples that have worked but are countered by small scale examples that have not worked or shoot down the ideas as "pie in the sky" or too expensive for anyone to try when we already have a government solution that more or less works anyway.


Ok, back to the real world.

Imagine in the early 1900s someone proposes a way to connect houses with an easy way to get from house to house in your car...

the proposal? Government roads...