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Internet Gets Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

by - source: Tom's Hardware US

A huge number of people disapproved of the decision to award Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize but one of the nominees this year will likely cause even more debate.

The BBC reports that the Internet is said to be among the 237 individuals and organizations nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. 

The Norwegian Nobel Committee decided the shortlist of nominees on March 9, however the list is never publicly announced. That said, nominators are free to divulge who they put forward, and according to the BBC, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi and Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the OLPC foundation, which developed the $100 laptop, support the nomination for the Internet.

The Internet was submitted for helping advance "dialogue, debate and consensus." We'll find out on October 9 if the Nobel Peace Prize (and it's $1.4 million reward) will be awarded to the Internet.

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steddy 03/11/2010 8:20 PM
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steddy 03/11/2010 8:22 PM
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On second thought, ignore that comment... That didn't make a whole lot of sense.

Bolbi 03/11/2010 8:27 PM
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If "the Internet" wins, who gets the award and the money? The World Wide Web Consortium?

JMcEntegart 03/11/2010 8:28 PM
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Bolbi :
If "the Internet" wins, who gets the award and the money? The World Wide Web Consortium?



Al Gore!

djackson_dba 03/11/2010 8:31 PM
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Does not seem to promote much peace on this site!

fball922 03/11/2010 8:32 PM
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I bet Al would then donate it to the study of Man-Bear-Pig...

1raflo 03/11/2010 8:37 PM
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I think this nobel comittee guys haven't ever played COD MW2 or Halo 3 online...or maybe racial slurs and profanity is the new "peace"?

Ciuy 03/11/2010 8:38 PM
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nice, internet is GOOOOOOOOOOOD for the brain .

dman3k 03/11/2010 8:41 PM
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kalogagatya 03/11/2010 8:42 PM
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hm. the internet is nothing without us the users that give it context... i think this is a pretty senseless nomination :\

Parsian 03/11/2010 8:43 PM
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Hey Internet helps a lot of democracy movement around the world so it certainly deserves one... One day, it becomes conscious.

bison88 03/11/2010 8:46 PM
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As long as they don't give it to Al Gore I am 100% for the "Internet" winning. For the last time he did NOT invent the internet lol

frozenlead 03/11/2010 8:47 PM
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This is starting to pan out just like I, Robot...now we're giving machines awards. I'm glad Will Smith is still alive.

The Internet - the unknowing distributor of porn, games, illegally copied movies, music, and games, research, news, opinions, and last spring break's photos could get a Peace Prize. Who knew?

jhansonxi 03/11/2010 8:48 PM
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Al Gore did a lot to promote Internet technology especially with the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991.

Al doesn't need the money as he already won the award in 2007.

Anonymous 03/11/2010 8:48 PM
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So, when does cars or airplanes win nobels? Or maybe the next time it's for pen and paper. This is just crazy.

jonpaul37 03/11/2010 8:48 PM
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guess i'll name my first born "The Internet"

djackson_dba 03/11/2010 8:49 PM
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dman3k :
The Bush campaign myth/lie about Gore supposedly saying he invented the internet has stuck, huh?



While it is commonly disputed that Gore ever said this, the actual quote "During my service in the United Stated Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." was stated by Al Gore. I'm sure it was just a poorly phrased response, but it stuck. Bush had nothing to do with this one. I was actually watching that interview and that statement had the whole room howling with laughter.

neilnh 03/11/2010 8:52 PM
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War is usually provoked by the overambitious.
The internet makes us all lazier.
Therefore, internet breeds peace.

deadlockedworld 03/11/2010 8:52 PM
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Maybe the Nobel account lost money in the stock market? They need to save a million be awarding to a nonexistent entity.

deadlockedworld 03/11/2010 8:53 PM
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Also, Al Gore DID help secure the funding for research leading to the internet.
Id brag about it too if I did that.

Anonymous 03/11/2010 8:54 PM
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How do you give a prize to a non-entity? What's the point? Maybe they are strapped for cash this year and figure they can keep the money if the winner can't actually accept it. Really they should come up with a more sensible way of `honoring` the Internet.

climber 03/11/2010 9:15 PM
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Honouring the internet is like the US Supreme Court essentially declaring Corporations as having rights like an individual, which enables them to do things like fund raising and attack ads against politicians. What does the decision by the US Supreme Court have to do with the Nobel Committee, well simple, these highly educated philosophical decisions about granting rights to non-humans is potentially dangerous present setting national/international decisions. There has to be some level of distinction set between living sentient beings and everything else. Acknowledging the role the internet has played in the last 20 years is fine, but keep the separation and distinction between how we acknowledge people and entities or technological marvels we humans create.

gsacks 03/11/2010 9:36 PM
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Sorry, but this is a joke, right? The Nobel prizes used to be serious business. Granting money to worthy recipients to continue their work in a particular field. Nominating 'the internet' let alone actually awarding it the prize seriously diminishes any credibility the Nobel committee has left. This is just a publicity stunt, like when Time magazine made "You" the man of the year and put a mirror on the cover.

Niva 03/11/2010 9:41 PM
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gsacks, lets be serious, Obama won it because he ran an election campaign on the promise of change. The internet is certainly worthy of the award given this context.

Anonymous 03/11/2010 10:40 PM
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(points judges to 4chan)

new headline: Internet removed from list for possible nobel peace prize! Plased on list of suspects for everything, ever.

The internet is like a country where everyone is anonmyous, and this anonmity brings out the extremes of human behaviour (like the abusive nature of halo, etc).

sliem 03/11/2010 10:41 PM
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The internet is for porn.

Anonymous 03/11/2010 10:46 PM
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I just get this image of all these old, poor, men and women sitting around trying to determine who will win this award, I posted my picture here:

http://lettergram.org/?p=196

g00ey 03/11/2010 10:58 PM
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Quote :The Norwegian Nobel Committee decided the

So they are Norweigan now? That's strange, they used to be Swedish.

K_M82 03/11/2010 11:23 PM
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if the internet wins, where would the price money go?

Rickyw972 03/11/2010 11:51 PM
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Remember the snickers commerical with the elephant and donkey and one of them saying "I invented that!" and the other saying something along the lines of MY father this, my father that.


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