Studio HilbArt
4 HN mentions · mentioned in 4 months, 2017–2021
2:15 · 226K views · Dec 8, 2013
A short clip of Bill Gates appearing on David Letterman's show in 1995 trying to explain the value of the internet. Letterman is visibly unconvinced.
HN cites it as an example of how even sharp people dismissed a transformative technology, often invoked in crypto debates.
4 comments from Hacker News
> “ By constraining it to transfer of an intermediate representation you're not making a good faith representation of the process.” Yeah, I’m betting on the future utility enabled by the tech, not what it can do right now. Similarly people said the web was useless in the 90s [0] when the future utility (imo) was obvious. > “Second, the only thing you can do better with crypto than a centralized exchange is crime, grift and regulatory arbitrage.” There are non-crime advantages to being able to use decentralized systems. These are most obvious in places with hostile governments and unstable currencies. The new stuff you can do with decentralized state and public auditable records is super new and the applications there I think will be really interesting. > “ What takes longer sometimes is AML/KYC and security.” Is this true? I thought there was a complex system of clearing houses, record updates, etc. a lot of which is done manually? Am I wrong? > “Like any other regulatory arbitrage you can certainly make things faster or cheaper, for instance by dumping chemical waste into lakes. Once again comparing a car to a little buggy with a 2-stroke engine and no catalytic converter on the basis of fuel efficiency is disingenuous too.” I think you’re failing to steelman this. It’s possible to build a lot of stuff to handle things like KYC in a way that’s better because of crypto tech. Imagine using an NFT as a pseudonymous ID that you KYC once and then can use anywhere unless it change
Microsoft did a lot of ruthless things and even some illegal things, yes, but it requires a very unkind reading of history to deny the absolutely huge role they played in bring about the world we take for granted today. It's a common, but not at all obviously correct, analysis that where we are today was manifest destiny and thus Bill Gates and Microsoft was just randomly the medium providence chose to carry out this destiny. Microsoft got so incredibly many things right, and they started flagging almost the second they got a major thing wrong (the internet). I really like this interview (Bill Gates on Letterman in 1995). He says the internet is a big deal, but he clearly doesn't get it , not does he provide any sort of thought leadership. Baseball and cigars? Snowcrash had been out for three years by then. this video
Watch this video [1] of Bill Gates explaining the value of the Internet to David Letterman, where he's just not getting it at all. Bill's telling him the things it can do relative to David's interests, but he just sees those as problems that don't really exist because they've already been solved. It took decades before the Internet was useful to "the masses." I don't think there's some conspiracy among VCs, but I do think dismissing cryptocurrencies for the reasons you have is short-sighted. [1] this video
Reminds me of Bill Gates trying to explain the value of the Internet to David Letterman. "Does 'radio' ring a bell? 'Tape recorders' ring a bell?" this video