There were two competing visions at the dawn of the modern digital era: in one camp, you had people who saw computers as a way to empower people to push back against corporate and state control; in the other camp, there were the people who wanted to use computers to transfer power from the public to corporations or governments.
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@pluralistic The defining difference between ex-hippies and control freaks given the era.
Or between idealism and greed.
Those of us who had the idealism of the open Internet and what it could be - including Tim Berners-Lee no doubt - could only hope that the power corrupters, control freaks and madmen would not end up ruining it.
We were wrong. Badly wrong.
Power corrupts. Absolute power is a wrecking ball for any form of humanity.
Cory Doctorow
TechTaxCanuck