[samovar_booth]

Wow, this reads just like the story of the internet. And even California itself.

Started out as a strange, insular place that attracted a bunch of exuberant people who cultivated a unique and highly creative culture.

But once the capital class realized that all of these clowns created a huge opportunity, the place was occupied by powerful and unaccountable players who choked all of the joy and creativity out of it in their quest to transform it into a finely tuned and perfectly predictable money making machine.