Computers but no Internet

Hi!

I'm not sure how plausible this is, but here goes. The Internet started up as something in DARPA, right? Something military or defense-related, if I remember correctly? Suppose the government manages to classify Internet technology as a military secret and prohibits its export outside of the US (and limits its distribution inside the US). We'd wind up with a world with very little Internet outside the military, and almost none outside the US.

How would things have turned out? Assume computer technology development in fields outside the Internet remains the same (and Internet development remains the same inside military circles).

ACG
 
I'm imagining computers connected by HAM radio stations and exhanging files.....
But seriously,computers would be limited to mainframe-like systems for companies to crunch data.
 
It's almost ASB, I think.

There would eventually and inevitably be a need for computers to communicate with each other that would spawn a wider area network. Whether something as extensive as the modern Internet and specifically the World Wide Web would happen is debatable.
 
Hmmm... I would think that once you start getting home computers, you'd end up getting an internet anyways (if a few years late). Networking is just too useful.

(And the US isn't the only place where computer tech can be invented *coughjapancough*)

It would be interesting, though: Moore's law still holds, so when people start putting machines together they're all an order of magnitude more powerful. Hmmm... Cool idea.
 
Hey,what about a radio-based internet?
Communication to distand parts of the world would be tricky,though.
 
User-friendly home computer invites some form of data exchange and remote data access. And reliably functioning voice network (meaning reliable 33.6 Kbit connection) is really everything what's needed to transfer more text (ultimate form of information for humans) per minute than human is able to read. Internet may be the end of everything, but it wasn't the beginning of everything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videotex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bildschirmtext
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system
 
Some of the tech was developed at CERN so that must be removed to.

I'm imagining computers connected by HAM radio stations and exhanging files.....
But seriously,computers would be limited to mainframe-like systems for companies to crunch data.

I saw a modem that did just that and got weather pic's to in an old electronics catalouge.
 
Why would this change stop the development of hobbyist networks and smaller computer networks? In the late 80's and early 90's, you could use your modem to dial in to bulletin board services hosted by individuals, but more importantly communities like the original AOL, Compuserve, and Prodigy were available. I'm not sure, but I don't think they used any technology that would have been proprietary to the military under this scenario.
 
I guess we would have a lot of dial-up intranets (i.e. more limited networks) which could be accessed via dial-up, much the same as old-fashioned BBSes. Theis sort of thing I think was around in the '80s. Customers might be able to subscribe to services and get information, limited e-mail services, software downloads etc. (I suspect MP3s might be available by now, each network service might have its own store?)

I also suspect that interactive cable TV might make an appearance early this decade- to fill the internet gap. It was being trialled in the '90s and I suppose Virgin (in the UK) might have something like it now?
 
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