# Al Gore invented the Internet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 8, 2000, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484 "2000-03-08T22:34:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jwg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@jwg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jwg)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2000, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/21 "2000-03-11T06:18:00Z")
Cooper: Give it up. Al lied. That’s all there is to it. ---
**Author:** ![Cooper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Cooper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cooper)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2000, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/22 "2000-03-11T06:33:00Z")
Oh, your right jwg, how silly of me. If only you had said ‘thats all there is to it earlier’, we could have avoided this whole argument. ---
**Author:** ![SoMoMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@SoMoMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoMoMom)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2000, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/23 "2000-03-11T00:43:00Z")
ROFLMBO 😃 People get so heated about politics. In the end, big money runs everything anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2000, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/24 "2000-03-14T21:44:00Z")
Even if every thing pathological Clinton haters said about Gore was true he will still make a better president than that stupid smirking frat boy Dubya. How people can take Quayle II as a serious contender for the Presidency is beyond me. You Republicans should have stuck with McCain * * * Having an open mind means you put out a welcome mat and answer the door politely. It does not mean leaving the door open with a sign saying nobody’s home ---
**Author:** ![Silo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Silo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silo)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2000, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/25 "2000-03-15T00:19:00Z")
These are Al Gore quotes that made me laugh. See if they make you laugh. “Mars is essentially in the same orbit… Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.” – Vice President Al Gore, 8/11/94 “I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.” “A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls.” – Vice President Al Gore “For NASA, space is still a high priority.” – Vice President Al Gore, 9/5/93 “[It’s] time for the human race to enter the solar system.” – Vice President Al Gore “Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children.” – Vice President Al Gore, 9/18/95 * * * If at first you don’t succeed you’re about average. ---
**Author:** ![Mac007](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9a28c/32.png) [@Mac007](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac007)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2000, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/26 "2000-03-27T05:32:00Z")
Hey, you don’t think maybe Dan Quayle and Al Gore were separated at birth do you? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@jens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jens)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2000, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/27 "2000-03-27T07:56:00Z")
For those of us who have been using the Internet since 1979 (granted, there have been significant improvement since then, particularily that we no longer have to specify routes ourselves!\*), the statement sounds hilarious. And I am not sure whether Cooper’s “Tell me more about these technical circles. Did you hear this on CNN or MSNBC?” was meant as a joke. I hope so, since CNN or MSNBC have nothing to do with technical circles! \*We used to have to specify routes ourselves. If I wanted to send email to somebody at UCLA, I would have to send to “myrouter!otherrouter!backbonesite!otherrouter!ucla!somebody”, mapping out every site along the way… ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2000, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/28 "2000-03-27T16:05:00Z")
Larry Borgia: > [@](#): > > Even if every thing pathological Clinton haters said about Gore was true he will still make a better president than that stupid smirking frat boy Dubya. How people can take Quayle II as a serious contender for the Presidency is beyond me. And how people can ignore the fact that as governor of Texas, he’s been extremely successful and popular, and won re-election by a huge margin is beyond _me_. As the election season wears on, I can tell you this much: if you Gore supporters insist on thinking of Bush as a lightweight who got by only because of his father, you’re going to lose the election. He’s got his faults, and if you focus on them, you may get a response, but that one is not going to stick. > [@](#): > > You Republicans should have stuck with McCain Why? You democrats would have all gone to Gore anyway! * * * Chaim Mattis Keller [ckeller@kozmo.com](mailto:ckeller@kozmo.com) “Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible. The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.” – Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective ---
**Author:** ![Sake\_Samurai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sake\_Samurai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sake_Samurai)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2000, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/29 "2000-03-28T06:04:00Z")
Cooper, your efforts in defense of poor Gore are noble, but wasted. I think most rational men would admit that his statement is entirely misleading if not a downright lie, especially given the average intelligence of the typical television viewer (who knows little or nothing about the genesis and development of the internet). Remember, this is the same wizard of technology who, in 1998: > [@](#): > > …smiled and admitted that he, too, has trouble turning on a computer – let alone using one." > —“Gore touts job-training programs at Pittsburgh factory” , Associated Press, September 4. I think it’s safe to say that, were there no Al Gore, the Internet would be exactly as it is today. He helped the Internet like Bush helped end the Cold War. The spirit of his interview can be garnished from the complete text: [quote] I’ll be offering my vision when my campaign begins, and it’ll be comprehensive and sweeping, and I hope that it’ll be compelling enough to draw people toward it. I feel that it will be. But it will emerge from my dialogue with the American people. I’ve traveled to every part of this country during the last six years. During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth, environmental protection, improvements in our educational system. During a quarter century of public service, including most of it long before I came into my current job, I have worked to try to improve the quality of life in our country and in our world. And what I’ve seen during that experience is an emerging future that’s very exciting, about which I’m very optimistic and toward which I’m – I want to lead. [quote] Apart from being atrociously worded and chock full of meaningless political drivel, it seems he is trying very hard to say that his Internet initiatives, “have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth”. In spirit, in context, perhaps he is correct. His actual words, however, “I took the initiative in creating the Internet.” are, of course, bullshit. * * * Yet to be reconciled with the reality of the dark for a moment, I go on wandering from dream to dream. ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2000, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/30 "2000-03-28T06:22:00Z")
I hope no one believes that **Silo** ’s list of quotes were actually said by Albert Gore. Those quotes are from a well-known list of Dan Quayle’s quotes. Whether or not Quayle actually said them, I don’t know (Quayle certainly never said the one about brushing up on his Latin to talk to Latin Americans). I don’t know whether Silo’s intent was libel or humour. In any case, Gore never said them, and the list is from much earlier than 1994. * * * What part of “I don’t know” don’t you understand? ---
**Author:** ![SINsApple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@SINsApple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SINsApple)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2000, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/31 "2000-03-28T06:58:00Z")
Well, if you take it out of context, you certainly open it up to misunderstanding (I admit that he worded it poorly, thereby allowing that), but when you put it in its context, it is pretty understandable what he was talking about. Although I think it was pretty understandable what he was talking about anyway. It is very easy to take a quote out of context and turn it into something it is not. Just look at this message board as an example. * * * “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” --Whitman ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2000, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/32 "2000-03-27T19:43:00Z")
[http://www.xmission.com/~mwalker/DQ/quayle/qq/sci.tech.html](http://www.xmission.com/~mwalker/DQ/quayle/qq/sci.tech.html) [http://www.xmission.com/~mwalker/DQ/quayle/qq/hall.of.fame.html](http://www.xmission.com/~mwalker/DQ/quayle/qq/hall.of.fame.html) Those are some links to Dan Quayle quotes, which are premeniscent of Silo’s libelous/facetious list. ---
**Author:** ![edbenson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e79b87/32.png) [@edbenson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edbenson)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2000, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/33 "2000-03-28T00:35:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by cmkeller: > \*\*Larry Borgia: > > Why? You democrats would have all gone to Gore anyway! > \*\* Not me. This is one lifelong but very dissatisfied Democrat who would’ve voted McCain over Gore in a heartbeat. But no way am I or would I vote for Dubya. So I guess I’ll very reluctantly be pulling the switch for Gore. And I suspect a majority of the voters will very reluctantly do the same. Sorry for going off topic but I just had to respond. * * * Then again, I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Yoop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cdc98d/32.png) [@Yoop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yoop)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2000, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/34 "2000-03-28T09:23:00Z")
Er, for the record: Al Gore _was_ the basis for the lead character in “Love Story”. (One of them, anyway - the character’s a composite of Al and Tommy Lee Jones.) At least, according to Erich Segal, who said as much in the New York Times on December 14, 1997. Of course, you can feel free to believe that Erich Segal wouldn’t really know the truth about the inspiration for “Love Story”, but gosh, _he only wrote the damn novel and screenplay_. (Unless, that is, the vast left-wing conspiracy has gotten to [http://us.imdb.com/Credits?0066011](http://us.imdb.com/Credits?0066011) too.) The standard for research on some of these Gore stories would make the homeopathy kooks blush, I swear. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/35 "2000-03-29T06:54:00Z")
edbenson: > [@](#): > > Not me. This is one lifelong but very dissatisfied Democrat who would’ve voted McCain over Gore in a heartbeat. Really? Even though he’s a typical Republican (anti-abortion, welfare-reform, etc.) except for his campaign finance reform views? If so, all I can say is that you’re **very** dedicated to campaign finance reform. Most Democrats who’ve been excited about McCain only know that he’s not Bush, who’s the favored Republican. Chaim Mattis Keller ---
**Author:** ![egkelly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/db5fbb/32.png) [@egkelly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/egkelly)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2000, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/36 "2000-03-28T19:09:00Z")
A little off the topic, but exactly what did Gore do while “serving” in Vietnam? I am surprised (that as a college graduate) he was not offered a commision-especially when they were making idiots like Rusty Calley 2nd looeys. My questions: why wasn’t he an officer, and (2) since his father was all for the war, why didn’t little Al cover himself with glory by leading an infantry squad? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/37 "2000-03-31T04:23:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by egkelly: > **A little off the topic, but exactly what did Gore do while “serving” in Vietnam? My questions: > why wasn’t he an officer, and (2) since his father was all for the war, why didn’t little Al cover himself with glory by leading an infantry squad?** Just a guess, but I imagine a US Senator “all for the war” would not necessarily be for his son and heir leading an infantry squad in a guerrilla-warfare zone. All very well and good for the common folk to die for US munitions development and anti-Communism, but the ruling classes are different. If one has power, one can use it to keep his family out of harm’s way. Miss feudalism yet? * * * No, that’s wrong–try this: _Party per bend sinister wavy bendy sinister wavy vert & or, & sable, in fess point a demi-pellet en soleil inverted & bendwise sinister issuant from the party, in sinister base a roundel bendy sinister wavy vert & or._ ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/38 "2000-03-31T07:44:00Z")
I’m no fan of Al Gore’s, and if I were American I’d vote for his dog before I’d vote for him. HOWEVER… Attack him on the issues he stands for. Don’t marginalize someone with sound bites out of context and other crap like that. By doing so, you’re contributing to the problem, which is the degeneration of political discourse which leads to these lousy candidates in the first place. I’ve got news for you - every vice president gets ridiculed. It’s part of the job. Trust me, if someone followed you around with a microphone and demanded comments on every issue, after four years you’d have a few howlers on record yourself. The difference with Vice Presidents is that the media goes way, way out of its way to find these things. Also, the VP isn’t as protected as the president in terms of access to the media, so they open themselves up more. I remember a scene when Bush was president. Someone asked him for his opinion on something, and Bush turned to a faceless person behind him and said, “What’s my position on that?” Unfortunately, there was a shotgun mike on him, and the exchange was picked up. It made a very minor stir. Now, if the VP is asked a question like that, he may not have someone to cover for him, so he’s either got to wing it, or stand mute and look like he’s clued out or uncaring. Today’s media goes around laying traps and minefields, hoping for that perfect soundbite to nail someone. We should stop paying attention to it. Al Gore is pretty technically savvy when it comes to computers. Didn’t he write an early music sequencing program for the Mac called “Al Gore Notes” or something like that? But anyway, what matters are his policies, and Al Gore’s are a nightmare. “Earth in The Balance” lays out many of his ideas for environmental regulation, and the book is a crapfest of bad science and muddy thinking. Insofar as he’s a technocrat and thinks that government should be ‘shaping’ our technological infrastructure, he’s the Internet’s biggest enemy. He stood by his wife as she launched a radical compaign against the First Amendment. He never met a big government program he didn’t like. Be afraid. Be very afraid. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484/39 "2000-03-31T15:31:00Z")
I think the OP has been answered adequately. You guys can go yak about Gore’s politics in Great Debates. * * * [NYC IRL III](http://boards.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/006163.html) is on April 15th. Do you have what it takes? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-gore-invented-the-internet/9484.md?page=1)