On: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

[acdha]

It's not a claim that things would never happen but that it'd take much longer. Yes, private investment exists but it's so much smaller — MIT is legendary, one of the top schools in the world, has a full-time development office getting donations, etc. but the bulk of their research is federal by a large margin.

I note that you dismiss the foundational technologies of the last century as cherry-picking but fail to present any data to support claims which are well outside the mainstream. Do you have any sources to back those assertions up?

[skookumchuck → acdha]

> but it's so much smaller

Right, because there's much less point to private investment if you can get the government to foot the bill instead.

> Do you have any sources

The technologies I mentioned are well documented. Are you not aware of FidoNET?