Al Gore, the Internet, and the Gullibility of the Populace

He's still a lame-ass carpetbagger taking credit for other peoples work.I don;t recall the then-president taking credit for atomic power. I don;t recall the then-president taking credit for the telephone, or the light bulb, or whatever. Mostly, politicians have allowed the actual inventors to take the credit, and made some genuflection to the national spirit of ingenuity and natural creativity of the [insert state] people.

Problem? I don't see a problem

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My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind. ---Albert Einstein

minnemooseus responds to me:

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But that quotation should have source information

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It was an open letter they sent everywhere. Here's one reference to it: Net builders Kahn, Cerf recognise Al Gore

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Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

contracycle responds to me:

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No, he took THE initiative. It was directly because of Al Gore that ARPANet was expanded to commercial use.

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... which is totally trivial.

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(*blink!*)You did not just say that, did you?Do you think anything happens without money? Considering that they were using a military network system, do you think it could have been done without Congressional approval and spending?There was more than one networking protocol at the time. Ever heard of BITNET? If you didn't use VAXen, you might not have. It had the big relay chat thing long before the Internet was ever heard of.

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In the first place, it was happening anyway - the internet structures such as .com and .edu indicated that the net had already expanded to commercial and educational institutions.

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".com"? What is this ".com" you speak of? There was no such thing as ".com" in 1983. The first name server didn't come online until 1984 and .com, .net., and .org domains didn't appear until 1985.

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If anyone is to take credit for the net "as we know it today", it is Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, who invented hypertext, or HTTP, at CERN.

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"HTTP"? What is this "HTTP" you speak of? The advent of the browser wouldn't appear until the 90s. The Internet as we know it is from 1983.Do not confuse the fact that you are seeing a pretty picture rather than plain text with some sort of new "version" of the Internet.

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It is misleading to describe Kahn and Cirf as inventors of "the networking protocol", because there are many such protocols. Specifically the developed the packet-switching concept to full TCP/IP as we have it today.

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And how is that not developing the networking protocol used by the Internet? What do you think the "I" in "IP" stands for?

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But this most certainly does not give them credibility to ascribe this to Gore.

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But they didn't! Where in their letter did they even hint that Gore had anything to do with programming the thing?

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Huh? A reporter asks a political representative a political question and receives a political answer and suddenly you think they're talking about the technical side of things? That makes absolutely no sense at all.

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It makes plenty of sense - becuase Gore was, at the most charitable, foolish to have used the word "invent".

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But he didn't.This is an awful lot like Bogie having said "Play it again, Sam" in Casablanca or Mae West having said, "What don't you come up and see me sometime," or Carl Sagan having said, "Billions and billions" in CosmosNone of those things happened. Lots of people think they happened, but they never did (that last was an invention of Johnny Carson doing an imitation of his friend, Sagan.)Gore never said he "invented" the Internet.I've quoted him at least twice. Surely you can remember what he said by now: How does one possibly interpret this statement to mean that he "invented" the internet? Wolf Blitzer certainly didn't think it was weird when Gore said it straight to his face and nobody in the media thought to say anything about it for two days after.Only until Dick Armey decided to try and make some sort of political point about it did anybody care.

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He claimed creation

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And that's exactly what he did. He created what was necessary to make the Internet what we have today.The bill that does so bears his name. It's called the "Gore Act."

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If I claimed to INVENT the telephone, you would expect me to have invented the telephone, rather than to have merely said it was a good thing.

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But if you never claimed to have "INVENTED" it, what then?He didn't say what you think he said, contracycle. You bought the lie.

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Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

Monk responds to me:

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Ok let’s try another chant; Al won in 2000, Al won in 2000

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Acutally, he did. The full recount of Florida found that Gore won, not Bush.Didn't you read the NORC report? Gore won.

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Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

contracycle writes:

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He's still a lame-ass carpetbagger taking credit for other peoples work.

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Huh? The people whose work he's supposedly taking credit for don't think he tried to take credit for their work.Who are you to contradict them?Gore did not take credit for inventing the internet. He took credit for getting the government to make it what it is today.And he did.The bill that did it bears his name. It's called the "Gore Act."

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Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

Isn't it scary that a public figure's words can be so utterly misrepresented, and his credibility severely damaged, EVEN WHEN HIS ORIGINAL WORDS ARE ON PUBLIC RECORD?I remember a friend of mine telling me about Gore claiming to have invented the internet about a year ago. I thought it was really funny, and it seemed appropriate somehow. The image that was propogated by his opponents (that he was some kind of wooden, preppy freak) seemed to be rounded of nicely with a surreal piece of big-ego bluster. It makes a lovely narrative arc. The fact that it wasn't true obviously didn't stop it being funny, or it being propogated all over the place.Its a seductive idea - hey, maybe even a meme - and whether it is true or not doesn't have any bearing. People WANT it to be true.Often people can get these lovely funny little ideas stuck in their head about a public figure (or a personal aquaintance for that matter). This little idea becomes all you need to know about that person. It saves time and thought. Al Gore inventing the internet is one thing, but an example closer to (my) home is the leader of the Tory party "having something of the night about him" - an oft-repeated quote that has dogged him for several years now. He's supported some pretty repulsive policies, but it really aggravates me when people go "Oh, Michael Howard? Something of the night about that one!" as though thats all that needs to be said. Its shorthand for thinking.This message has been edited by Tusko, 04-08-2005 06:41 AM

Irrelevant. Depending on which ideology you support, the Norc data can show Gore won or it can show Bush won.It carries as much weight as the "Rrhain Report"

Voting Rights in Florida 2002Errorhttp://www.norc.uchicago.edu/fl/index.asp

Those should be accompanied by some commentary. They don't seem to be directly on the topic to me.

Those links weren't intended for debate. I just thought I'd provide some kind of info on the NORC report just in case some people don't know what they were talking about.

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I don;t recall the then-president taking credit for atomic power.

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Yeah, some people think Kennedy actually created the space program. We know that isn't the case because he never wrote any programing code, invented fuel mixtures, etc.

It is odd how some people think. I remember when this first came up and thinking, Oh he was a senator probably had something to do with moving it from government use to more general use.What was immediately clear was that the vast bulk of media wasn’t interested in understanding what he meant or even exploring what the actual claim might be.In the conversations that have occurred, seems one topic isn’t really being discussed. What is the INTERNET. Until you define it, how can you decide anything?Seems to me that politically the INTERNET is more defined by scope and or access than specific technology.

Actually, what should be clear is that politicians exaggerate, mince words, and spout gaffes. They ALL do it. The difference is that when it is done by a candidate that supports your particular ideology, it must be defended and placed in the context of a larger meaning.But when it is the opposition’s candidate then it is easier (and more fun) to ridicule.

Monk responds to me:

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Depending on which ideology you support, the Norc data can show Gore won or it can show Bush won.

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Incorrect. You obviously didn't read the NORC report. It says that by every single standard that could be used to recount the entire vote, Gore won.The only way in which Gore lost is if there had only been a recount of the four counties Gore was asking for. If the recount of the entire state had been done (which the SCOTUS erroneously claimed could not be done in time), Gore won.Statewide count/Prevailing standards: Gore by 60Statewide count/Custom standard: Gore by 171Statewide count/Most inclusive standard: Gore by 107Statewide count/Most restrictive standard: Gore by 115Statewide count/Bush standard: Gore by 105You did read the report, yes?

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Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!