Re: My Dinner With Marc Andreessen

On Mon, 1 Jul 2024 13:18:10 -0000 (UTC), Ben Collver wrote:

I was vaguely aware of Andreessen as the
guy who invented the first web browser, a socially useful accomplishment
by any measure and a story I had long kept in the back of my mind as an
outstanding proof text that useful invention often flourishes best when
government subsidizes it, socialism-style--given that Andreessen had
created it while a student at a public institution, the University of
Illinois.

And what was this “web” thing that he was “browsing”? That was invented at
CERN, also a government-funded research institution--in fact, an
international one, dominated by countries that the US would consider
“socialist”. They had their own browser, before Andreessen. He had his
chicken but no egg, while CERN had both chicken and egg. That’s why it was
able to spark off the popularity of this world-wide web. Then the
Americans were able to move in and do what they do best, copy other
people’s ideas, only on a larger scale.