No Internet

WI the internet never became so widespread for public use?

1. Think 1992 with better graphics.

2. I guess one might see a lot more interactive TV-type services (EDIT: possibly including video-on-demand), and some sort of dial-up intranet services (like old-fashioned BBSes, viewdata stuff like Prestel, Minitel etc. but more advanced.)
 
More ideas? I guess we might not have the MP3 revolution (unless we get a broadband Prestel/Minitel/etc. or we had proprietry music stores). So we might see SA-CD or DVD-Audio actually taking off. And with no reason to burn MP3s, would there be fewer CD-Rs and more Minidiscs? (Especially if no MP3 players.) Online gaming might be not that easily possible, though might still exist on proprietry intranets which you might dial up to. TV would certainly progress faster with more interest in it- no onlide video services, no loss of advertising reveue. More interest in DAB radio in the UK, which is failing.
 
I couldn't imagine what university would be like without the online journals... Either I wouldn't have access to them, or the library would be twice as big.

Computers would not be so popular, I'd imagine. If you have a computer at work to use and you don't play games, why would you bother?

Would laptops be more popular?
 
On a personal note (thought of thanks to Kilny) I guess I might actually get stuff done...

Then, there's also the TV, videos and games (and books, magazines and pacing up and down) to waste time by.


Must stop.
 
basically all information would come from TV screens, television companies and political parties would have apsolute monopoly ower information distribution
corporations, nations, religious leaderships and military comand would still have a "net" of electronic devices for secure telecomunication

phonesex would be more popular... pandemic ewen

eventually teletext would evolve to fill the gap somewhat, but not realy
 
basically all information would come from TV screens, television companies and political parties would have apsolute monopoly ower information distribution
corporations, nations, religious leaderships and military comand would still have a "net" of electronic devices for secure telecomunication

There's still the internet for those in the know, as per the OP. Absolute monopoly is a bit harsh, since even non-establishment radio and TV stations may exist, and non-mainstream newspapers/magazines etc.

Certainly the flow of info would be less democratic and media would be largely proprietry, unless you're a pirate radio station. Or an underground magazine.

phonesex would be more popular... pandemic ewen

Among the desperate few (or more than a few) who want to bother with that sort of thing.

eventually teletext would evolve to fill the gap somewhat, but not realy


Have you not heard of the likes of Prestel, Minitel etc.? Like teletext but interactive I think. More advanced versions are likely, and interactive TV as well.
 
Well the newspapers and news magazines would still have quite the lucrative business without having to compete against the emerging dominance of the net. Not to mention that people would have a little bit more privacy, nobody trying to put up embarrasing footage of others on the internet, cept maybe on America's Funniest Home Videos. ;)

So Britany would probably be alot more sane in this world.

There'd be no bloggers, so I fail to see this as a bad thing. :p

Everyone would have to, gasp, go to those mom and pop video stores to get all their porn!!!! :eek: *shock*

There wouldn't have been such a big stink about shared music, cept maybe for burned cd's, but you'd still have to have someone buying the music cds, dvds, etc. to allow those TO be burned in the first place. So the millionaire music stars wouldn't be whining about that. Not to mention it'd all have to be in close circles in various neighborhoods, so there wouldn't be THAT big of a problem in the end.

Politics would probably be a tad bit cleaner and a wee bit more civilized. :p But not by much. :rolleyes:

A more negative side effect would have to be on up and coming music groups. With no websites, or youtubes, or what have ya, to put up their music, give out dates of events, etc. they'd be almost forever destined to working in clubs, and trying in vain (at times) to get anything of theirs played on radio stations. It'd basically be much more of an uphill battle for them than it already is.

Course one could say that for alotta people, be it artists, game makers, etc. trying to attract attention to their work.

They'd have to actually concentrate more on the single player aspect of alotta video games!!! Gasp!!! what would the world be like without multiplayer games?!!?!?!? ;)

Alot of these little communities (like this one for example) wouldn't exist, we'd be all back to the way we were before the net became so prevelant, having very little outlets to share in our interests. Cept for maybe books, comic books, video games, etc.

Though to be realistic, we'd all probably have alotta extra cash laying about to use on other things besides net and computer stuffs. o.o;;

so yeah, the good with the bad.
 
granted there were waves of pirate radio stations in eastern europe and mediteranian states mainly italy and yugoslavia, in the 1970/early 1980is
for some reason by the mid 1980is they all died out one by one after more than a decade of sucesfully oposing the establisment
probabbly the difusion of the tv in poorer aeas of said countries was too much competition
small tv stations newer go near the ratings of national or corporate chanels, and were often censured and sabotaged up till the late 1990is (probbably today also)

and how many people actually read newspapers? 5% 10% ?
seriously if you remember any time in the 1980is or 1990 when the situation was dangerous or there was war or political/social turmoil, you must remember the olnly information youd get was censored, cut, digested, and badly sincronised
the tv had such a monopoly on information entire populations learned of ewents in theyr own country or the neibourhood from relatives phoning from abroad
 
Maybe a less efficient economy? Without internet to connect global business, it would be harder for stores like Wal-Mart to operate since they couldn't be ordering at the same time as the products are selling. In addition, it wouldn't be as easy for people to travel around the world and do business with several individuals. Also, a world without internet might decrease the speed the global society can help disaster areas.
 
Maybe a less efficient economy? Without internet to connect global business, it would be harder for stores like Wal-Mart to operate since they couldn't be ordering at the same time as the products are selling. In addition, it wouldn't be as easy for people to travel around the world and do business with several individuals. Also, a world without internet might decrease the speed the global society can help disaster areas.

1. That is a bad thing?
2. That is a bad thing.
 
granted there were waves of pirate radio stations in eastern europe and mediteranian states mainly italy and yugoslavia, in the 1970/early 1980is
for some reason by the mid 1980is they all died out one by one after more than a decade of sucesfully oposing the establisment
probabbly the difusion of the tv in poorer aeas of said countries was too much competition
small tv stations newer go near the ratings of national or corporate chanels, and were often censured and sabotaged up till the late 1990is (probbably today also)

and how many people actually read newspapers? 5% 10% ?
seriously if you remember any time in the 1980is or 1990 when the situation was dangerous or there was war or political/social turmoil, you must remember the olnly information youd get was censored, cut, digested, and badly sincronised
the tv had such a monopoly on information entire populations learned of ewents in theyr own country or the neibourhood from relatives phoning from abroad

A few might bother listening to short-wave radio, although what you get is often still the viewpoint of particular governments/establishments, since a lot of SW stations are government-backed. The exception being perhaps the Christian stations (yea, including the dodgy ones- you don't need the internet for crazy/wrong ideas being promoted!)

Of course, a lot more people would be reading newspapers with no Net, tho' there is the likelihood that people will stick to the TV as they can't be bothered to look elsewhere.

With digital broadcasting technology available, there will of course be more choice in what one can get than with analogue- I wonder if the likes of Digital Radio Mondiale could become more widespread?
 
Maybe a less efficient economy? Without internet to connect global business, it would be harder for stores like Wal-Mart to operate since they couldn't be ordering at the same time as the products are selling. In addition, it wouldn't be as easy for people to travel around the world and do business with several individuals. Also, a world without internet might decrease the speed the global society can help disaster areas.

Makes me wonder how we did without the internet the first 40,000 years of our civilization :rolleyes:. Internet didn't exist in the 1970 and economy was fine. Internet sure as hell didn't exist in the 1950s and business was booming.

You know why it did well, because people actually got on a plane, flew to their customer, shook their hand said what they had to say. I am so freaking sick and tired of "send it to me in e-mail." "Just e-mail me." And especially, "didn't you get the e-mail?" Personally, the world would be more pleasant without it, no 13 year olds with cell phones that they don't need, myspace would be something of science fiction.

Sure, you think computers are great, wait till you have a job where that is all you do. I am 22 years old and I suffer from carpi tunnel, insomnia, bad back, the fluorescents have damaged my eyes.

"Computers are a tool, not a lifestyle... It is no more a tool than a hammer, or a screw driver" Write that down.
 
Makes me wonder how we did without the internet the first 40,000 years of our civilization :rolleyes:. Internet didn't exist in the 1970 and economy was fine. Internet sure as hell didn't exist in the 1950s and business was booming.

You know why it did well, because people actually got on a plane, flew to their customer, shook their hand said what they had to say. I am so freaking sick and tired of "send it to me in e-mail." "Just e-mail me." And especially, "didn't you get the e-mail?" Personally, the world would be more pleasant without it, no 13 year olds with cell phones that they don't need, myspace would be something of science fiction.

Sure, you think computers are great, wait till you have a job where that is all you do. I am 22 years old and I suffer from carpi tunnel, insomnia, bad back, the fluorescents have damaged my eyes.

"Computers are a tool, not a lifestyle... It is no more a tool than a hammer, or a screw driver" Write that down.

Something I need to remember. I have a feeling I'd personally find plenty of other pointless things to do with a computer if there was no Internet, as in the past I have done. This has ranged from anything from playing games to silly things like messing around with paint programs to trying out software and even (gasp!) playing graphics demo programs on the old Acorn. I did actually get round to trying to learn some simple BASIC programing in those days, which was good. One of these days I'll actually get round to learning C++ and possibly some other languages (something worth discussing in NPC).

The thing is, there would be a lot more telly addicts in this TL (me certainly). And anything that involves computers methinks is more likely to require the use of one's brain in some way.
 
Anohr thing is: where would it leave open-source software? No Internet means less communication between coders and the code would be less freely available for people to modify. And the finished product might not be as available to the general public, except maybe for some of the main Linux distros and whatever turns up on the front of a magazine.

Possibly we might actually still see boxed versions of Linux distros on the shop shelves...
 
Top