Originally Posted by Robbie

As I understand it...the govt. paid a private company to make the mainframes of a group of computers interact with each other.
Real, real primitive stuff that is nothing compared to today's technology.

But yeah, the govt. (and probably really the military) reach out for new technology all the time.
They do not create it though.

That is brought about by individuals outside of govt.

And of course the internet we see today and how it works in every way (other than that very first primitive networking between 4 computer main frames) is ALL private companies doing things as the market demands it.

In one way...yes, you can say that MAYBE private industry might have never found a need to have computers communicate (I somehow find that a bit of a stretch), so the Govt. handing out our taxpayer money to a private company was the beginning.

But that would kind of be like giving credit to the first caveman who invented the wheel, and then comparing it to a modern technical marvel of tires like a Pirelli P Zero.

Yeah, the caveman got the wheels turning (pun intended)...but where the market took it from there and advanced it, is what is the most impressive.