Yes, Jorge, you're very right on everything. I like to ask people who might not be so impressed as i am with the multi-faceted magnificence of the Internet chains-of-inventions: "How important do you think the printing press was?" People usually pause at this, but there are many other cool things out there. Cheers. Nicolas On 3/6/2011 1:41 PM, Jorge Amodio wrote: >> (That being said, i can see that some other "inventions" might be very >> deserving also) > I'd give you just one, without vaccines many of us would be 6 feet > under, there are many "inventions", not all of them that great like > the atomic bomb ... > > As you said the printing press has been a great achievement to > increase the efficiency to distribute the written word, but perhaps > more important has been the invention of the written word. > > The Internet today is a conglomerate of many things that you can call > "inventions" or "achievements in technology", Internet without HTML > and the DNS would not be the same, etc. It would be hard to imagine a > high performance router made out of vacuum tubes. > > Without the invention of packet switching there would be no Internet > and you would probably be complaining to the PTT for the price of the > kilo-octet and dealing with many different interpretations and > implementations (being there, done that) of ITU-T formerly CCITT X.abc > recommendations. > > IMHO the best and more notorious side effect of the Internet is that > since its conception we learned to work in a cooperative manner across > borders, to "freely" share information and experiences, regardless of > nationality, color, religion, sexual orientation, educational > background, etc. What makes Internet unique and so relevant is the > "spirit" of the people which (excuse my french) with all this shit > about governance, IP& commercial interests, yada, yada, we are > loosing. > > We have an old proverb in spanish that says "La culpa no es del > chancho, sino del que le da de comer", in english would be something > like "Don't blame the pig, blame those who feed it." > > My .02 > Jorge