The Internet Age was Built by Ignoring Western Values

It’s a mantra heard often and schlepped even by people that you would think would know better, but it’s said anyway: “Without Western Civilization and Western values, we wouldn’t live in the amazing world we live in today”. Well, as I often say on Sovryn Tech, my anarchist/hedonist-run science and tech podcast, that’s horseshit.

Granted, I’m only going to address one aspect of the modern world here, but it’s largely the one people think about today…that being computers and the internet. And I want to introduce you to the first in a cast of characters (the others whom are already well documented about and don’t need me to do a write-up on) that were either eons ahead of their time in theorizing the “Digital Age”, or that were directly involved in bringing it to fruition. The point I want to highlight with these various heroes of the computer/internet revolution, is that the heavy hitters that helped create that revolution were:

1. Hedonists
2. Nonconformists
3. Heretics
4. Libertines
5. Sex fiends

Yes, these people lived their lives in absolute contrast to everything that people feel comprise “Western values”. There are no Christians here, let alone “Cultural Christians”. Some dumbasses might even have called these people “Cultural Marxists”!Dunnnnhhhh! Of course, that term means absolutely nothing, other than it applies to people that aren’t living the conservative lifestyle that you think they should be living. Too bad for you. But fortunately for most of us, these people did live their lives as they did because, for whichever reasons, it inspired them to summon the future that we live in today.

The main person I want to tell you about here is Bill von Meister. Haven’t heard of him? I’m not surprised. Most people don’t want to go around bragging about a guy that slept with so many women (sex workers and otherwise), drank so much, and did so many other wild and “hedonistic” things…I mean, it’s bad for press to have such a libertine fellow being the guy that developed a veritable Spotify in 1981! It’s true, and it wasn’t the record companies that tried to shut down von Meister’s music streaming service, it was record stores! But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Online gaming, a proto-Facebook, and he was even directly credited as being the creator of AOL, this Bill von Meister more or less came up with everything that you think of as being the World Wide Web. Sure, most of it (minus AOL) didn’t take, but he did literally build the services. This wasn’t just unbuilt dreams on von Meister’s part. To put it in perspective, here’s this from another great blog:

The world might have easily missed the fact that William von Meister invented AOL had Steve Case not shown up for his memorial service on May 20, 1995. Family and friends were amused that day with eulogies describing von Meister’s voracious consumption of life, taking on fast cars, fine red wine, and only the best of the single malts. One of the eulogies described a dark side of von Meister’s drinking and his always-a-bridesmaid-never-a-bride luck in business. In one 10-year span, von Meister was involved in 9 startups and never stayed with one of them more than 2 years. One of von Meister’s close business associates said, “He was the most human of human beings I ever knew, and his flaws were never disguised.”

Even the published obituaries written that week had no mention of von Meister’s involvement in AOL. In fact, until that point, von Meister’s larger-than-life caricature might have seemed like an abject failure. He died broke and left his family in debt with nothing to show for all his business startups except a single plaque at the famous Palm restaurant in Washington, DC, and that was only because he probably bought more vintage scotch there than anyone else. When Steve Case took his turn at the memorial lectern, he opened with, “Without Bill Von Meister, there would have been no America Online.” Most of the people in attendance, including his family, had no idea of this man’s importance on the history of America industry. And that was less than the half of it.

All von Miester’s friends and business associates would agree that he was a horrendous businessman and a pathological dreamer. After about a year with a company, he would become obsessed with his next great idea and leave. In the end, more often than not, he was removed from his creation with no historical acknowledgment of his involvement. Sometimes, however, history has a way of fixing things. With a little bit of research, one can easily find that William von Meister’s footprint on history includes no less than the inventions of AOL, Western Union’s Mailgram service, Cable & Wireless’s entry into the America market, Digital FM radio, and the first utility that allowed consumers access to on-line information (“The Source”). In 1979, when Isaac Asimov first saw von Meister’s “Source,” he pronounced, “This is the beginning of the Information Age.” Von Meister, through his creation of the Source and his creation of what eventually became AOL, might be considered the single most important influence on getting most Americans on the Internet. In Alex Klein’s book Stealing Time, Alan Peyser, a former CEO of Cable and Wireless and close friend of von Meister, is quoted as saying, “I see all these things that say Steve Case was the founder of AOL, but I know better.”

Von Meister was the ultimate VC killer–you have to love him. One of his VC backers once said that he could raise money from the dead. Stealing Time includes a great story about how von Meister and his brother devised a plan for dealing with VC’s called “Dawn Patrol.” They would basically party their VC’s into submission. It all would start innocently enough with a morning meeting, then lunch at the Palm, and then an early dinner at von Miester’s luxurious house in Falls Church, Virgina. After dinner, the party would begin, and ,by the early hours of the next day, the drunk or hungover VC’s would beg to go home, at which point von Meister would start talking about going to his racquet club for tennis and cocktails. By then, the VC’s would say anything just to go home. In 1981, von Meister pitched an idea to Warner Brothers about allowing users to download digital music. Warner Brothers laughed him out of their office. He appears to have posthumously gotten the last laugh: 20 years later, AOL purchased Time Warner. Imagine what he would be thinking about if he were around today.

To put in brief, Bill von Meister directly created, at least:

• Western Union Mailgram Service
• The Source
• AOL
• Cable and Wireless (in the US)
• Quest Communications
• Verizon
• Digital music downloads and streaming

He was “The Man”, as they say. But no one wants to talk about him because he didn’t live a stoic lifestyle. He didn’t live a quiet, proud life like some others do in the tech industry that conservatives love to trot out as shining examples of Western values. Well, as far as individuals go, I challenge you to find someone (besides perhaps Magnavox’s amazing Ralph Baer) that has done more to bring our future into reality…and you’re certainly not going to find one that has done so with such panache. If you want to find out more about Bill von Meister, I definitely recommend listening to the below episode of the Internet History Podcast:

CHAPTER 3, SUPPLEMENTAL 1 — THE FORGOTTEN ONLINE PIONEER, BILL VON MEISTER

And there are others we could talk about that lived lives in the starkest of contrasts to Western values that were directly responsible for creating the digital age. The daughter of libertine poet Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace, effectively invented the personal computer over 100 years ago. Hedy Lamarr, among other things, devised WiFi over 50 years ago. The great Alan Turing was gay, and he had to pay the ultimate price of his life because people didn’t like his sexual choices…a death that is all thanks to Western values. The list goes on of people that lived very wild–or at least different–lives that would cause any conservative or “Westerner” to shriek in horror…but these people created the future. At times, as I’ve hinted at, I feel that there’s almost a conspiracy to not let you know about these amazing humans (no, really, had you heard of Bill von Meister?), because how dare such brilliant people live in such rampant hedonism?! At least that’s what the average American/Westerner would say, I’m sure.

Well, fortunately for us, people like Bill von Meister did live a hedonist life. I think their unconventionalism and “un-conservativism” led them to think so far outside of the box that they brought on the personal computer, wireless communications, digital downloading, and the internet/World Wide Web itself. So many of us are in their debt, but then many of us to this day would condemn them for “living in sin”. What a pity that most can’t just dump this notion of “Western values”, and the let the rest of the future arrive all the sooner.

And…damn…I can’t wait for someone to make a movie about Mr. von Meister. That’s going to be a good time.

Carpe lucem!

This story was originally published at zog.ninja on January 3rd, 2016.