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> World of internet was supposed to be the one where you can fluidly switch between your preceptions of self, become a new person whenever you felt like, leave your past behind. This was supposed to be a new world where people see themselves differently.

Since when? The Internet was designed to be a robust way for Americans to communicate in the event of a nuclear attack.



Apparently that's a myth, see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET#Debate_on_design_goals

I've also read about it in the book "Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet". In the prologue it mentions:

“Rumors had persisted for years that the ARPANET had been built to protect national security in the face of a nuclear attack. It was a myth that had gone unchallenged long enough to become widely accepted as fact.”

“Lately, the mainstream press had picked up the grim myth of a nuclear survival scenario and had presented it as an established truth. When Time magazine committed the error, Taylor wrote a letter to the editor, but the magazine didn’t print it. The effort to set the record straight was like chasing the wind; [Bob] Taylor was beginning to feel like a crank.”

Some other sources seem to confirm this, e.g. http://www.alphr.com/features/369490/top-ten-internet-histor...




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