No Internet Developed Either By Gore Or Anyone Else?

1. The internet wasn't invented by Al Gore.

2. Widespread use grew out of a DARPA project, but M.I.T. already had an intranet going among their computers almost from the days of punch cards. If DARPA hadn't done it, academia would have as it is a superb educational tool. The university nets would eventually be linked together, and it would spiral out from there.
 
Gridley's right. It's just too useful a system to go undeveloped. But presuming it does, the effects on daily life would be too immense to calculate. Access to news would be limited, and events would develop much less rapidly. Protests such as the ones in Iran in 2009 or recently elsewhere in the Middle East would have had far less effect, developed slowly, and not had as much impact in the outside world. Governments could retain tighter control over their people and there would be fewer outlets of expression.

Academic institutions would have fewer options available to them. Access to academic journal articles would be limited solely to professors and students with the right credentials, and academic research would be even more difficult than it is today.

Fax machines would be the single most important item in an office environment. Economic growth and spread of wealth would be hampered. The 1990s would be less prosperous due to lack of a dot-com bubble and the lack of instant information would perhaps result in a slightly more stable stock market.

Public culture and dialogue would be completely changed. Everything from disaster relief to humor would be affected. Cinema would differ greatly - no Matrix, for instance, and no instances of the internet or of hacking as a plot point in films.

Truly, the effects of no internet are incomprehensible. As you can maybe tell by my response, I literally cannot imagine how the world would develop without it, except by envisioning the world of the past 25-30 years as the Eternal Eighties.
 
1. The internet wasn't invented by Al Gore.

2. Widespread use grew out of a DARPA project, but M.I.T. already had an intranet going among their computers almost from the days of punch cards. If DARPA hadn't done it, academia would have as it is a superb educational tool. The university nets would eventually be linked together, and it would spiral out from there.

1. I think he realizes that. ;)

2. This.
 
Public culture and dialogue would be completely changed. Everything from disaster relief to humor would be affected. Cinema would differ greatly - no Matrix, for instance, and no instances of the internet or of hacking as a plot point in films.

Truly, the effects of no internet are incomprehensible. As you can maybe tell by my response, I literally cannot imagine how the world would develop without it, except by envisioning the world of the past 25-30 years as the Eternal Eighties.

i could still see hacking used in plots of films .. there was still dial up ya know ;) and BBS's would be the norm..

dating would have to be done the old fashioned way (thank the gods)
and I wouldnt mind a return to the world of the 80's where life was not so exasperatingly rush rush rush rush rush rush.. information overload.

we could still have Alternatehistory bbs even :) and we could all putz along with our 56K modems :)

however i do agree with the effects would be incomprehensible to connected nations. however a large chunk of the world isnt online or it isnt available to them or it is so controlled that they throw the kill switch.

another effect would be News Papers would still be popular and the norm.

I could also see the telecommunications infrastructure being stuck in time and with out the killer app.. well you might see more diversification in the computer industry as well with the likes of Commodore and Atari possibly but used in more academic and business situations instead of in the home
 
I'm finding the image of no web really terrible....my girlfriend and I have made it two years despite being long-distance mostly because we Skype a ton. Phone calls just aren't the same. And now I just wish the next two-and-a-half weeks before our net visit would pass faster...
 
By the late eighties, computing reached a certain "critical" level where the Intel 80286 and Motorola 68000 based machines replaced the typewriter, the adding machine; and with spreadsheets, some of the more complex pocket calculators. The result is still a business/academic world more like today than like that of the sixties and early seventies.

To freeze technology to the late eighties, you need one or both of these changes:

1. The price of phone connection time does not go down. Dial-up communication and fax operations remain costly.

2. Government enacts control, sort of an "internet postage" for access on the basis that it can be regulated as interstate commerce.
 
By the late eighties, computing reached a certain "critical" level where the Intel 80286 and Motorola 68000 based machines replaced the typewriter, the adding machine; and with spreadsheets, some of the more complex pocket calculators. The result is still a business/academic world more like today than like that of the sixties and early seventies.

To freeze technology to the late eighties, you need one or both of these changes:

1. The price of phone connection time does not go down. Dial-up communication and fax operations remain costly.

2. Government enacts control, sort of an "internet postage" for access on the basis that it can be regulated as interstate commerce.

OTL the Phone companies attempted to enforce long distance rates on modem "calls" outside of the local area. The Gov't quashed that. If we allow this to go through the iterwebs could become prohibitively expensive for casual surfing at least until this changes or non-phone technology moves in.
 

NothingNow

Banned
2. Widespread use grew out of a DARPA project, but M.I.T. already had an intranet going among their computers almost from the days of punch cards. If DARPA hadn't done it, academia would have as it is a superb educational tool. The university nets would eventually be linked together, and it would spiral out from there.
Agreed. There really isn't any way to stop it, except through severely authoritarian measures, or absurdly high bandwidth costs, long term, Eg. <$.001/bit.

What if it's restricted to intranets in corporations? What would be the impact on world media, economics etc?
Teletext, Usenet, and primitive P2P systems would dominate if bandwidth is that restricted. It's not like you needed pictures anyway.
Either way, It'll still have a huge effect on the public. Teletext systems also have the advantage of being effectively secure through restricting most users to a read only position and allowing only limited commands re:controls. perfect for most authoritarian states.

To freeze technology to the late eighties, you need one or both of these changes:
You'd probably have to butterfly the IEEE's development of TCP/IP as well, and that was back in 1974.
 
[...] by envisioning the world of the past 25-30 years as the Eternal Eighties.

OH-GOD-NO.jpg
 
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