> When draining swamps qualifies but cell phone coverage doesn't, I argue that it is still unclear.
Yes, you're right. There's seemingly another element to the author's designation of "big" that I neglected: people working toward a common goal with no obvious or immediate commercial benefit. Cell phone coverage was a natural outgrowth of competition between cell phone companies and a desire to claim more customers and provide more competitive service.
> So the internet is not big
The author didn't say this, Thiel did, and the context in which he said it is not all that clear. Seemingly, given the context of the article, it's a reaction to the current state of Silicon Valley backed ventures, which Thiel (perhaps rightly) claims are not providing technological breakthroughs. If Thiel is suggesting that the Internet, in a larger context, is not a breakthough innovation in itself, I can't agree with that.
> And how does that act of adding a life support system and a passenger qualify as more than evolutionary?
Personally, I don't think it does. Then again, there may be huge technological hurdles above and beyond those that enabled the moon landing or the mars rovers that I'm not aware of. The average person probably isn't aware of them either, and whether or not it's justified, "putting a person on mars" will probably never seem as ambitious as "putting a man on the moon" had seemed at the time.
There are undoubtedly huge technological hurdles involved in adding a life support system and a passenger. However, whether or not those hurdles get crossed is largely meaningless as long as the goal is a stunt: "putting a person on mars".
Yes, you're right. There's seemingly another element to the author's designation of "big" that I neglected: people working toward a common goal with no obvious or immediate commercial benefit. Cell phone coverage was a natural outgrowth of competition between cell phone companies and a desire to claim more customers and provide more competitive service.
> So the internet is not big
The author didn't say this, Thiel did, and the context in which he said it is not all that clear. Seemingly, given the context of the article, it's a reaction to the current state of Silicon Valley backed ventures, which Thiel (perhaps rightly) claims are not providing technological breakthroughs. If Thiel is suggesting that the Internet, in a larger context, is not a breakthough innovation in itself, I can't agree with that.
> And how does that act of adding a life support system and a passenger qualify as more than evolutionary?
Personally, I don't think it does. Then again, there may be huge technological hurdles above and beyond those that enabled the moon landing or the mars rovers that I'm not aware of. The average person probably isn't aware of them either, and whether or not it's justified, "putting a person on mars" will probably never seem as ambitious as "putting a man on the moon" had seemed at the time.