Overall is the Gutenberg press reloaded. First publish bibles in the local languages, then publish anything, like for example Leibniz, outside the usual channels (academia say), then limit the spreading of knowledge via laws and trade over boundaries. Much faster than before, but not so fast so that one individual, say, would witness both the Gutenberg press and a major effect like the USA.
- 1450 Gutenberg - 1970 Arpanet
- 1500 Luther - 1990 Berners-Lee
- 1700 Leibniz - 2010 Open Access, Open Science
- 1800 USA - x, major event towards the freedom of the internet
If we count in decades, suppose both processes as exponential and we take Gutenberg - Arpanet as the 0 point, then we see
2^t_internet = 5^t_gutenberg
which suggests that the major event x would be at about 4.6 decades after the Arpanet. :)
t_internet - t_arpanet = 2^p
t_history - t_gutenberg = 5^p
where t_internet is in the range [t_arpanet, 210] (in decades) and t_history is in the range [t_gutenberg, t_arpanet] (in decades).
Therefore, if a historic event related to the printing press occured at t_history time (in decades) then the equivalent event related to the net occured at t_internet (in decades), given by te formula:
t_internet = t_arpanet + (t_history - t_gutenberg)^0,43067
where 0,43067 = (ln 2)/(ln 5).
As I remember forums they are quite a lot smaller than HN and tended to focus around more specific topics. (HN is rather broad).
I do miss the old gaming forums! They're replaced by discord now which is a different way of interacting.