It pretty much was: ARPANET. And the instigator for all computers was the need to more quickly compute nuclear warhead trajectories, in real time, to make it possible, as well as efficient, to murder as many fellow humans as possible while also defending against the same by an opponent.

But yeah it might be nice to make it just work well, without any respect for and to whom or what. All that matter is how. It should work well, how do we do that?

Some cities are deciding to build their own infra. Good. Now if only they'd explicitly adopt their surrounding rural areas and include them in the program. Because this same FCC is dropping the subsidies for rural internet and telephone.

> If we want something for the public good, it should be publically funded.

That's just a silly argument.

If we are going there, let's first have the ISPs vacate all public rights of way and return all government subsidies.

They don't have to vacate anything, public should buy them outright. Yes after deducting the subsidy amount.

With what money and what political capital?

Public money and honesty.

I wish we lived in a fantasy world where we had both of those things in abundance, but unfortunately we live in the real world.