Science & Tech Quote by James Daly

There’s a particular kind of candor in that opening “See,” the verbal throat-clear that signals a pitch was coming and then, mid-sentence, runs aground. James Daly frames the Internet not as a revolution, not even as a medium, but as a “business strategy tool” - a phrase that collapses wonder into management-speak. The intent reads like an actor’s backstage confession about how people sell new technology: you don’t lead with possibility, you lead with utility, preferably the kind that fits neatly into a boardroom slide deck.

The subtext is skepticism toward that very framing. “What we were going to do” implies a plan, a script, a prepared line meant to tame something unruly. The Internet, in this telling, becomes less a frontier than a prop: useful, controllable, and flattering to whoever’s in charge. Daly’s hesitancy suggests he knows the pitch is reductive, maybe even a little dishonest. It’s the sound of someone catching themselves trying to domesticate a force that won’t stay domesticated.

Context matters: Daly dies in 1978, before “the Internet” entered everyday vocabulary. That mismatch makes the quote feel like either misattribution, an anachronistic paraphrase, or a later edit stapled onto his name. If it did circulate later under Daly’s authorship, that’s its own cultural artifact: we love laundering tech’s boosterism through familiar voices. Either way, the line captures a recurring ritual in American culture - translating the weirdness of new networks into “strategy” so institutions can pretend they’re still steering.