[ih] The Internet and the global economy

[jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa)]

So, in this Reuters story today:

  http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/23/us-internet-trade-davos-idUSKBN0KW1QY20150123

I found this: the Internet "today forms the backbone of the global economy".

Wow.

That's a incredibly fast journey from its beginnings (barely 30 years ago) to
something that consequential. Who'd have thought, when we were working on it
back then, that it would become that important, that quickly? I mean, _I_ at
least understood (with help from John Brunner, and, later, William Gibson :-)
back then that it would become ubiquitous and important, but... "the backbone
of the global economy"?

I think I need to sit down for a moment... :-)

	Noel