👀 The internet we might have had

#204 | Down, down colonialism

Hello there,

Everybody wants state-supported healthcare and state-supported education, and state-supported welfare. Yet, when it comes to those with lesser privilege, we denigrate the same asks as socialism. But today's Thing is not about privilege. Not directly, at least.

It is about colonisers and oppressors, and usurpers. It is about the social-ist internet we could've had if not for the US' willingness to suppress innovation from other geographies.

Mashable's series on the digital age's dark side, Kernel Panic, explores Project Cybersyn, an advanced computer network developed in Salvador Allende's Chile in the 1970s. The network was meant to modernize the Chilean economy and was designed by a British theorist and run by revolutionary programmers.

It was similar to today's social media newsfeed and monitored the country's industry from a control room in the capital.

This dream of a modernised Chile died when Allende was overthrown by a military junta, as did the potential for a second internet built under a different system of information sharing.

In the series, Mashable interviews the people involved in Project Cybersyn to uncover its dream and disappointment and it makes for compelling viewing.

I'm just sad that Mashable isn't developing Kernel Panic any more because it could have been a truly great show.

Anyway, go ahead and watch what might have been.

Baaa.

Dolly