Too may Americans excluded from go?

[Kirby]

while America may have the best health care in the world

Laughable.

[Bill Spight]

Diverting things back to the original topic at hand...

Rural broadband access in both Canada and America is an ongoing issue. In Canada it is noted as the "digital divide", and successive governments have been making efforts to improve access. Subsidies for capital costs are common, and there is a new government program specifically to improve speeds in the high north, where even satellite access isn't available (no line of sight to geostationary orbits).

Shoutout to Arthur C. Clarke, who patented geostationary satellites in 1945. Unfortunately, he was too far ahead of his time, and the patent expired before any such satellite was launched, so he made no money off of his idea. I'm sorry, Dave.

[goTony]

I do not think lack of internet is the reason there is a lack of interest in GO in the US.

I think there are a number of reasons.

Most people have simply never heard of it. And if they have they think of it as an Asian and difficult game. And they probably do not know any or many people that play. So there is a disclination to learn it.

Also generally speaking there is not a high regard for this kind of intellectual pursuit. It is thought of geeky and not so cool by many. And since not that many people play you have less incentive to pursue it. I am interested in Shogi. But as I could only play online I do not wish to learn it. I have no one to play with in person.

The effort and time to take to play is another. And it is easier to stay home and watch videos than go and play GO or learn on the internet.

So even if everyone had broadband I do not think there would be a large increase in players.

And John as a sidenote thanks for all your interesting books and posts on here they are appreciated!

[Gomoto]

Broadband is not needed to access go on the internet? Did I miss something here?

[Bill Spight]

Broadband is not needed to access go on the internet? Did I miss something here?

My wife and I used to have a local land line connection to the internet. When we got it, broadband was somewhat cheaper, and the modem came with the service, along with a flat rate. But I used to live where an internet connection took a long distance phone call, and I paid for the service by the hour. Real time go was impossible then, but I did play some correspondence go on small boards. My regular phone calls go over the internet now.

IIUC, there are plenty of places in the US without affordable internet connection. Besides, the internet is costly in the US. From what I hear, it is cheaper in the jungles of Southeast Asia, where the only connection is via satellite.

[Gomoto]

Thank you for the background information. I made the wrong assumption, this would be mainly a transmission speed issue.