[fatjokes]

I'll be the devil's advocate.

I miss the old Ma Bell. Its monopoly meant that AT&T Bell Labs had no financial pressure which allowed it to pursue pure research and crazy ideas that won several Nobel Prizes and laid the foundation of the 21st century.

It's impossible to say what would've been. Would it really have been worse than the miserable choices of telcos in their current form? Verizon, AT&T, etc.

Similarly, Google's ad revenue allows it to pursue incredible advances in AI and driverless cars that would otherwise be unprofitable.

[marcodave]

> Similarly, Google's ad revenue allows it to pursue incredible advances in AI and driverless cars that would otherwise be unprofitable.

yet at the same time, they can decide what's "in" and what's "out" (figurately) overnight. They could declare that driverless cars "are not worth it" or that AI research "has to be reorganized", and who would be there to counter them?

[profunctor]

Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, Uber etc etc. Google have a very powerful position but its not like they don't have formidable competitors in every field except maybe search.

[pdfernhout]

The difference is that Ma Bell was regulated as a monopoly and so was forced by government to act more in the public interest than it might otherwise (thus Bell Labs).