Hey everyone! Special thanks to Tristan from Step Back History, his channel link is in the description. The question I had for you guys was. "How different would you be in a world without the internet?" How'd it influence your personality and views. Let me know.
I wouldn't even exist - my parents met on an internet chat room hundreds of miles away, got chatting and everything went from there. If the internet didn't exist, the chance that I would even exist potentially is abysmally small
You never know. Back in 1968 my mom went to a bar with a friend and my dad had arrived on a train from Michigan a few days before that. He'd missed his bus and wandered into the same bar as my mom. Here I am 49 years later. The chance that any of us are ever born is pretty damn small.
You would exist, but technically two different versions of you would exist, if you think about it. If both your parents find other companions, then one of the chromosomes that comprise you today would be paired with another. So, if you look at it this wy, it would mean there would be two halves of you existing in that alternate timeline.
I'd be dead. I was so horribly depressed I was planning on.... checking out on my 25th birthday... I then met my current wife, and she changed me. Funny enough, she was also in a depressive state. The internet allowed us to meet and save each other. 7 years later and we're still happy together :)
I've spent most of high school on RU-vid and Wikipedia. Without that, I probably would never have went to university. Now I work at CERN. My live would be radically different without the net.
Awesome! Hope you don't get any of that conspiracy nonsense. Or at least not too often. My aunt genuinely believes you're sacrificing people and trying to open gates to fictional realms of eternal torture.
Coaster Weirdo We’re just talking about the rest of america, like the majority of the people living in the 48 mainland states, that aren’t the brightest people in the world.
Nicolas Salamanca Same I learned English through the internet the education system sucks here and most public schools students can barely speak English
I have been really depressed recently but seeing the “it’s 4 am and I’m not animating that” genuinely made me laugh so hard that I will be going to bed happy tonight. I love this channel!!
No, they would probably compete with Blockbuster since Netflix wouldn't have overtime fees, since that's why the founder founded it in the first place.
Regarding video games, I think they'd still be mainstream, but they'd be different in significant ways. PC gaming may be very different without the MMO craze, but consoles would not change much, at least not initially. The PS2 and GameCube were designed as offline consoles, with only the Dreamcast and Xbox being able to connect to the internet out of the box (and the Dreamcast, which did only natively supported dial-up, flopped anyway). Even then, online gaming on consoles took a while to get mainstream, and wouldn't become relevant until the release of Halo 2. In this alternate timeline, the Gen 6 consoles still get made, but nothing is connected. Xbox Live never exists, and local multiplayer remains the norm for shooters, including the aforementioned Halo 2, which would still be very popular as it followed the also very popular original Halo. That generation probably would still look 99% the same and still be massively popular. The following generation is where things start to look even more different, but still very familiar. It was the first where every system had built-in broadband connectivity, but it still took a while for online to become the norm. While Microsoft never revealed the split between Xbox Live Silver and Gold, there is some evidence that even by the end of the generation the majority of 360 owners did no have Gold accounts, and thus were not playing online titles, and the 360 was the most connected system that generation (Sony was lagging behind Xbox initially, and the Wii's online was bare-bones basic). All of the best-selling 360 and PS3 games could, in part or in whole, be played offline. However, without the popularity of its online multiplayer, Call of Duty would probably be not be anywhere near as popular as it is in our timeline, and likely have ended up with more middling sales as a series of semi-realistic single-player military shooters (with maybe a local split-screen). Halo may remain popular, but with the multiplayer part having grown more popular in our timeline, in this alternate timeline Halo 3 and subsequent games in the series might not have sold as well purely on the basis of the single-player and local MP. But most other popular games that generation were games that were either single-player only or had only a token multiplayer mode. So, while CoD and a handful of other series known mainly for their multiplayer would likely have not been as popular, console gaming as a whole would likely not be considerably different even as recently as 2012 in this alternate timeline. The Wii in particular would still have been a massive success, and it was a system that was not known for having a strong online presence. Perhaps the biggest difference we'd see last generation in a world without the internet would be the absence of digital distribution. No Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, or Wii Shop Channel means no downloadable content and no digital games. There would be no XBL Arcade, no Virtual Console, and almost certainly no indie games. So many smaller titles released over the past 10-15 years have only been possible because of digital distribution making things easier for smaller companies. Games like Braid, Fez, Limbo, and Super Meat Boy might never exist. Mega Man would never have experienced a revival without Mega Man 9. The "retro revival" as a whole might have never happened without indie titles and other small games that would have struggled to find space on store shelves. As for DLC, this meant fighting games would still be subjected to multiple re-releases every time there was a roster expansion; in the 16-bit era there were several versions of Street Fighter II & III, and two versions of Mortal Kombat 3, which if you wanted to always have the latest version it got damn expensive since you had to re-buy the whole game all over again. Many games with multiplayer modes would likely be limited to the maps/tracks the system came with. However, it's possible that expansion discs could have taken the place of DLC, since hard drives could still have become relevant as a replacement for memory cards, and any content from an expansion pack could be loaded onto the hard drive and accessed by the primary game (Halo 2 notably had its DLC maps released on a disc). The lack of internet and thus digital distribution would also mean the lack of the ability to issue patches for games. That means that any titles that had critical bugs or glitches would be stuck that way forever, as they were for every game released in the pre-internet days of gaming. This could be viewed as a double-edged sword. It is argued that the ability to change a game post-launch has resulted in a "release-and-patch culture" in the industry, where games are intentionally rushed out to market even if they aren't quite ready for prime-time, and then fixed after the fact, making early adopters de facto beta testers of sorts. On the other hand, even if a developer tries to make sure the game is running as good as possible before launch, sometimes unexpected things get through the cracks, and the inability to fix an unforeseen critical bug could hurt the game's sales and reception and thus the reputation and bottom line of the developer and publisher. Moving to the current generation, things will start to look even more different. Without the internet, MS's PR debacles leading up to the launch of the Xbox One would not have happened, as the entire concept of always-online would not exist. Gaming would still be 100% physical, and there could be no countermeasures against used games. As the concept of always-online wouldn't exist, it has ramifications for game development as well. PC gaming had already been bereft of MMOs for many years, with EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and so on having never existed, and their modern counterpart, the "live service" title, would not exist, either. That means Destiny, The Division, Anthem, and Sea of Thieves would not exist. It also means that online-only competitive multiplayer games would not exist, meaning no Overwatch and no "battle royale" games. The kids of today would not only have never had Minecraft or Five Nights at Freddy's to get their attention (and no RU-vid meant no Let's Players and other internet personalities to shape their opinions), that means Fortnite would never have existed. Single-player games would absolutely remain dominant as gaming would not be the massively social experience it has become this decade. The social element of gaming would be relegated to local play, things like split-screen and "couch co-op" continuing to define multiplayer as it did during the 90s. The fate of the competitive scene is ambiguous. Without the internet to popularize it, it may have never become as big as it is today, but it would still exist as it has had a long history. Fighting games would probably be the dominant genre since it has only required a single screen, and the Evo tournament has been around since 1996. However, first-person shooters would probably have never entered the competitive scene if they were relegated to split-screen. If the LAN still existed in this internet-less world, then it may have given some shooters the potential to be a major competitive genre. In conclusion, video gaming's massive mainstream success had already been cemented before online gaming became the norm. In a world without the internet, this almost certainly would not change. However, without the existence of online connectivity the face of gaming today would be noticeably different. Some genres would have taken entirely different trajectories, and many titles and even entire genres (e.g., the MMO) would have never existed. The overall market share of the Big Three in the console space would probably be different. Science fiction involving the internet would also not exist, meaning any games that had such a thing as a story element would not exist. The internet shaped our culture significantly, and as a result our different culture would result in at least some developers producing different games. Games journalism may still also be limited to magazines, though perhaps a TV channel dedicated to games would still arise and be popular, showing gameplay videos and having the latest gaming news and otherwise doing things a magazine couldn't do. But as a whole, video games would still be a popular mainstream form of entertainment.
Well written. Thank you for this. The only thing I have to say is games with a science fiction setting that involves an advanced level of communication would still exist and would be similar to the internet. I say this because phones still exist and scifi stuff (like Star Trek) has shown stuff only possible through the internet, like video calls, which is based on the idea that somehow, like using phones to communicate long distance, even the internet is an inevitability (even if the concept is fictional).
I feel that point-and-clicks, text-based games (such as Zelda) and adventure games would also be more popular, but video games as a whole would likely be seen as childish, temporary.
Emanuel Nicholson It would be closer to Back to the Future 2 with a lot of cable channels & monster media stores.. The malls would be bigger & better.. Everyone would be more attentive to each other.. Less distracted.. It would be almost like the 80's on steroids!! In ways I think it'd be better.. Other ways not as good.. BTW we actually had internet in 70's & 80's but it just became more inclusive to further ideas as we went along..
Brian Kelly They had good computers in the 80’s and also computer dating.. I recall a lot of hype about CompuServe.. Although it was obviously more expensive
I was born in 1972. I remember a life without internet very well. To the person whose parents met through online dating...there was phone dating services. Served the same purpose but you actually had to talk to the person hundreds of miles away. If you had a good long distance plan...as I’m sure would’ve been much cheaper over the years even without internet cheapening the value of Sprint and AT&T...you could talk to anyone you wanted if you were in the market for blind dating. The person who said they found a cure to their debilitating disease via the Internet, there was microfiche, which was accessible to any of the world’s data but on a manual device and from medical journals or newspapers from across the world. Like Emanuel Nicholson said...we could still do a lot of the things we do now but it would much much slower and you’d have to be way more ambitious and creative with where to look. If you didn’t know the internet existed...like no one outside of the military or computer science knew anything about before 1990’s, you wouldn’t even realize you were missing out on anything. Computers were good for a VAST amount of things besides computing. My mom had two computers for video editing in the mid 80’s. You could listen to music stored on a jump drive or a CD. You could play a wide assortment of video games. You could type papers for school. Certainly you know someone who has a computer and was late on their WiFi and phone bill at least once. They watched movies on DVD. Edited and downloaded and stored all kinds of media. We still had technology before the internet and I’m certain it would’ve greatly advanced by now. Or at least been much faster than in the 90’s.
I think videogames would still be strong, the 90s were a golden age and they didn't need internets to fully function, so, I agree that there might be mobile phones with card slots and controllers. Nintendo and Sony would dominate the industry. Imagine the first Super Mario mobile game in this timeline, the console wars would have taken to a major scale.
That would’ve amazing to see now that I REALLY think about it the console wars would definitely have been a lot more interesting but also a bit more intense honestly
if i hadn't found netflix, anime, and eventually pokemon, i would have been an author instead of a weeb. Edit: Pokémon wasn’t my gateway because video games weren’t really a thing in my house growing up, and I was born after poke mania.
Also considering now with COVID-19 that alternate world would be real dangerous and hope you still have a good stash of videos and video games here along with actual devices to run them on or still hope it works.
In a world without the internet, my life would be radically different. For starters, I would not have had to take a course in elementary school where I created my own webpage (to date myself here, this happened at around the turn of the millennium). I probably would not have had as much interest in computers outside of word processing and video gaming (since video games would have still been made for it and sold as physical media rather than via Steam). I still would play video games on actual consoles. As a teenager, I made friends easier online and it was one of the main ways I was able to connect with others since I was always seen as "off", "creepy", or just downright "weird" due to my social awkwardness stemming from Autism and more (which I don't wish to go over due to the fact that it's a depressing topic). So I would just be even more isolated and with fewer friends. I would still have been likely to take a film class for fun, but there'd be less reason to since youtube wouldn't exist (this would be about 2004-ish). I would have graduated High School with less of an idea of what I wanted to do with my life and with less of a chance to find what few things I'd be good at or even interested in. My adult life would be when my life would have taken a different turn. I wouldn't have really left home like I did and I'd have less direction or even friends when my dad kicked the bucket when I was 20. I'd be likely to still have all of the same irl friends I have in this timeline, but I'd still have no direction or skills. I wouldn't have been exposed to computers as much and then wouldn't have discovered my affinity for technology. Furthermore, my major of Information Technology would simply be non-existent, only existing as the separate branches of computer programming and repair. The whole area of computer networking and security would simply not exist. I would not have had to go through multiple quarters/years of the intricacies of routing, switches, TCP/IP, the multiple layers of computer communication, and the how's and why's of designing, implementing, and troubleshooting intranets. Much of my field of study would simply not exist, as would the sectors I'm working towards getting into (database management and/or intrusion response). And I simply would not be watching this video and leaving an essay of an answer.
Second Thought coincidentally uploaded a video about this topic two days ago ("What If the Internet Stopped Working?") and everyone was like "this could be a great topic for AlternateHistoryHub". You two should collab one day!
Channels like these tend to occasionally share the same topic a lot. I think they are already in contact with each other behind the scenes and compete against one another.
Just imagine the last year and a half, locked away in our homes, without the internet. While my first thought was I wouldn't have a job, things overall would be way, way worse. Higher unemployment, higher deaths (more people forced to leave home to work), and even higher suicide.
Although internet is only for depressed,lonely,bored,nerdy,geeky etc , without it, space jam nyan cat viral video newgrounds Markiplier jacksepticeye etc would cease to exist
The internet so profoundly changed my life I actually can't really imagine me without it. My politics, my involvement in society, my ability to become a content creator, what I think of in the world, my own prejudices and stereotypes, my friends would all be different. I wouldn't know even a third as much as I do or appreciate intellectualism at all. I also wouldn't have had my kid which again completely reshaped my life and that whole experience is intertwined with the internet. Honestly I'd probably be dead. So much of what I needed to learn I learned myself through the internet. I didn't grow up with good role models, guidance, or learning about emotions and stuff. I could see me being a pretty awful dude.
Individually and in short terms yes, but in the Long terms and with the mass (especially with covid hit) the internet would turn very toxic. And you don't use your imagination here, humans will find something for themselves. You will still have jobs and friends and kids, but just different ones than you have.
Which is good because you are mobile reading the porn magazines in convinience stores in Japan. Or in America using public library and masterbating in bathroom.
Oh the horror! I'm Grammie Norma, I'm old and I got grey hair! But I remember when- the internet- were everywhere! And no one had to pay for- porn- so I say, let it grow! (Lol, outdated meme).
You know, for people like us, our lives might be better w/o Internet. Think about it: without the Internet to distract us, we'd go outside more, or at socialize with other people more (Internet or not, multiplayer is still a thing.) This gives us more time to work on things that matter.
@@lenoribahi fun fact! Before the Internet, computers weren't used by anyone, ever, because i didn't use them before then, so this is everyone's experience!
The suicide rate would be higher regarding those who wouldn't survive in an internet-less world amidst Covid. Then again, we certainly don't see the summer of woke get as big as it was.
That's a huge, valid point though! If it wasn't for internet and 24/7 television most people would get the rest their bodies and minds need as opposed to the 4-5 restless hours most of us get nowadays. TV used to actually turn off at certain hours of the night and all there would be was static.
Unless they all resume having in-person learning in August/September 2020, students would be further behind in their studies. Even after the protests/riots from summer 2020 proved it was safe to have in-person learning, some places continued on with virtual learning.
@@MR-NO-NAME0 Or at least, those who made it through the lockdowns and first several months of Covid because of the internet would have. They would've joined along with those who did commit suicide during Covid.
Watching this video was like what I imagine taking a speedball would be like. Tristan's segments are like the speed up from cocaine then Cody shows up to mellow everything out with heroin.
I actually remember a time without the internet, I didn't have access to it until my late teens. Life would be simpler, social circles would be more immediate, people would be more private, there'd be less influence from international trends.
matochi506 and many incidents that happened in secluded areas wouldn't be known about 4 months because of person couldn't stream back the information to an international source
Same here. I was kid during the 90's. Most people I know didn't have internet and it wasn't a bad time at all. I had dial up for a bit but I didn't do much on it anyway. There was way more socialization back then as well and people more open to criticism then they are now. Video games were another source of fun and socialization. Them saying video games would a be niche during an alternate timeline with no internet is laughable. They were always popular. Their argument seems to come from a generational point of view of online gaming now. The industry was very profitable when there was no internet, even after the video game crash of the 80's.
Follow up episode idea: Working on this same premise, I believe the internet is a bit of an inevitability. Eventually in order to sell new products companies would try and find ways of connecting devices together to try to gain an edge over their competitors by reducing dependency on physical media. But rather than a global open internet, it likely would be internal company intranets similar to what we see today but for the giant companies. In other words a closed network. It would probably take a very long time for it to get to where it is today with corporations trying to keep control over it and likely connections would be mostly peer to peer for consumer devices for the purpose of file transfers. Eventually I think things like the Home Server or NAS would develop so people could store stuff on a single network resource in their home, most people would use it as a media server I'd imagine with some document storage as the likely use case. People would probably start to abuse this (cough pirates cough) and connect their homes to each other buying enterprise gear. These people would likely be the people who are the PC enthusiasts today. Companies would probably fight this on patent grounds or try to release their own products. At this point an internet would probably start to emerge, but would look quite different. The internet would likely be heavily regulated and corporate controlled and would look like an entirely different place. There would be no push to keep the internet an open platform since it never was in the first place. Mostly it would be like the early internet in terms of billing, and probably would eventually expand to how it is now similar to how MMOs changed how ISPs worked. However I don't see it having many websites since its corporate controlled nature, the web likely wouldn't exist in this timeline and therefore social media. Likely chat rooms, file sharing, and some peer to peer gaming would exists, but it probably would remain stagnated at that level.
I came to similar conclusions, some form of global internet(s) would eventually exist, but the web could easily have been much less/differently developed.
In the early 90s, before the Internet went public, there was a dial-up gaming system called ImagiNation. Members could play many different kinds of games, incluidng card games, casino games, kids games, and an adventure game. It also included email and chat. And before that, there were local systems called Citynets. I lived in Boston at time time so I used Boston Citinet. I don't remember it having games, but it did have email, forums, and chat, which was the main reason I used it. So there may not have been an Internet, but there were smaller networks that would have provided many of the same services, and there's no reason to think they wouldn't have eventually expanded. Incidentally, at one point near the end of this video, you said something like "we all would still be here" or something to that effect (I'm too lazy to go back and find it now). The problem is that there are many young people around now who would not have existed if their parents hadn't met online.
I would argue that physical isolation would less prevalent without the internet. I grew up without it and friends spent a lot more time face to face. I see my friends less every year as they all spend more time online.
really tho? Is it really due to internet tho? I spend way more time with friends after internet cause they're always friends that you like but aren't close enough to call, the internet is a great way to ask them out. And I don't really see people (the ones not addicted to gaming at least) choosing sending time online instead of hanging out. Those who spend so much time in door gaming would still do so but with consoles anyways.
kaka Ho yeah I’d say the internet has a big influence on communicating face-to-face and talking on the phone. Before the internet I went to a person’s house or called their house. Now, the people I enjoy and remain friends with communicate via text message on FB Communicator. I’ve been lucky enough to be in a band that plays instruments and loads/unloads equipment for local shows...we spend the majority of our time communicating on Messenger. It’s so much easier than having to confront or visit anyone. But I could EASILY live a life without it. Most people born after 1995 could not. Idk what my daughter says or how much “lecturing” I’ve given her over the years about a world without internet or technology for that matter...she’d be lost without the internet. And she’s 21! But I do appreciate your perspective! ❤️
I definitely agree. Dating probably would be a lot better if you ask me the Internet today has ruining dating. It’s made women more conceited cause guys are constantly drooling at them on the internet and it’s made guys more awkward in picking up women. No internet this definitely would of changed women would be a lot more open to dating and guys would have a lot more testicles to snag the woman that they want because without the internet they would be force to have to learn the dating game the old fashioned which in my opinion is better
I wouldn't count too much on the whole "entertainment is only controlled by a few media companies on cable" - at least not entirely. During the 80's and 90's, public access channels were still pretty huge, so I'd imagine in this alternate timeline, perhaps Cody would be allowed an allotted time slot on his local PAN for the TV show "Alternate History Hub" and talk about an alternate history where, somehow, computers formed worldwide communication networks. Pretty trippy I think.
With the price of equipment inevitably becoming more affordable over time, I could definitely see this happening, unless big broadcasting lobbied Congress to pass legislation to stifle small content producers
Man, this is fascinating yet terrifying to think about as, as they said, many lives (including my own) have been shaped by the access and use of the Internet. In a world where that access was never possible is one hard to imagine.
10:00 In an Internet-free world, I'm pretty sure CDs would still be quite popular. People still buy CDs in our timeline, so they unquestionably would still be popular in a world without the Internet.
@@lindenlynx Im in a hurry so sorry if i get the country wrong, but there have been stores where you could go in, listen and then download the music directly from the shop. Mainly in Japan i think.
CGI would still be a thing dude, only crappier because it would become an even more rare skill to master without international aid and tutoring. basically cgi would be worse in that timeline
It's not at all strange to think. I lived huge part of my life in 90's and early 00's. I was inclined with computers a lot in my younger days, due to connection internet was pretty nonexistent. This video defines my view of utopia. Everything would be better. I just love all that alternate technology you present, and I really, reslly would want that!
@Confused Frieza You got that right and now it got even worse with the White House infected and this disease coming for a second time. It's really an emergency and in that alternate reality with COVID-19 really would be awful and the news wouldn't be as fast.
Most of my closest friends are people who I have never actually met in real life. I may have more friends in real life, but all I do with them is make random jokes, never actually discuss anything interesting. It is the opposite with the people I meet online. So, if there was no internet I would probably not have any meaningful relationships with people, and, as a result, I would probably be very lonely, and frustrated with my life. Of course, I would not know what I was missing, but that wouldn't change the fact that I would have no one to discuss what I am interested in with.
Without the internet, I might not have discovered my love for filmmaking, and I would've probably continued on my original path of becoming a meteorologist instead of a filmmaker.
Dude you think too small, try to imagine the bigger picture here. Use your brain to really imagine what the world would look like without the internet.
some times i wish that my life isnt surrounded by internet.. sometimes i day dream of a life where i could be myself, no holding back. no need to be cautious of someone dangerous, living an independent life.. not surrounded by "trending" things. that sounds a bit like paradise..
The amount of times I have said "I wish we'd had the internet while I was growing up." The sheer volume of information that can be found there dwarfs any library... and it's a lot easier to find. If you wanted advice back then you had to rely on those close to you - and a lot of the time they were clueless, or people you didn't want to ask. Is that better than now? I don't think so.
I'd be dead without the Internet. It allowed me to locate successful medical treatment for an extremely debilitating condition that I never would have found otherwise. So yeah.
I would’ve still been the same lol, my mom’s contraceptive would’ve failed and my sisters would still tease me about it saying that I was a mistake lol.
0:36 I'm in my 20's and I'm a "boomer" i really Believe the internet is great for buying, selling and music, maybe directions.. Nothing else... almost anything else is just horror to humans mental health .... Its horrifying and sad. So many people are insane because of it.
not really the internet is great for gaming too, and the best part is you don't have to buy anything to play all sorts of amazing games. Adobe flash may be gone but we now have maxima flashpoint.
actually itnerent changed my personality greatly it made me from guy who jut liked videogames and that's it to a guy whoa actually lijkes science and reads books an other history it mad em more knowledgeable and made me seek actual knowledge and learning
Naah It would be like science fiction to them. An idea that sounds possible, but doesn’t exists. And there would also be conspiracy theorists in that world who claims that the government-ruling class has it, but doesn’t share it.
I learned english through video games and movies way before I had the internet to learn from. I can't imagine having the internet would have let me learn any faster.
SuperNoWa So true. I'm fairly young and I started learning English at 13 without any guidance other than english videos with subtitles. I thank the internet for opening so many doors in my life.
9:37 Interestingly, phones like this actually exist in our timeline. Nokia made a gaming phone called the N-Gage with physical game cartridges. These were games like Sonic N, Crash Nitro Kart, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. The design was pretty bad. As you can guess, the N-Gage flopped.
I often pondered the same thing where what if the internet did not exist or did not take off for whatever reason. I was born in 1966, it was a world where Ozzie and Harriett were still on TV and I came into the world exactly two months before Star Trek came on TV. TV was still mostly black and white but color was coming up fast. That said, here goes my take. I remember the first personal computers in the 1970's and there were aq few people who started to run BBS'es (Bulletin Board Systems) where you had to dial them up. At that time, say 1978, you used 110 or 300 baud. BBS'es were stand alone usually and basically only hardcore computer enthusiasts used them. The downside is unless you had a phone package where you can all all places in your area code, you had to watch what BBS'es you can call where you will not run up your phone bill. Of course, I've heard of people "phreaking" (in the 1970's and 1980's) where they somehow manipulate the phone system to avoid charges but that was illegal. Stand alone BBS'es generally served their local areas. We had discussion boards but those mainly focused on technical topics although there were some general debate, political and non-political and specialty forums like shortwave listening, amateur radio (I'm a ham radio operator myself) and so forth. This changed around 1983 when a computer engineer named Tom Jennings came up with Fidonet, basically a system where dial-up BBS'es can network although not in real time. I remember getting online in 1986 to Fidonet. Basically Fidonet's system operated in a node type network where the local BBS you would call into, you'd post in forums you like, my favorites were politics, history, shortwave and amateur radio, cats, cars a few sundry other things. You'd post there and at certain times of the days, the local BBS'es would call into a central hub and relay the messages back and forth and the hub woulds then call the area node which would then go to a bigger central node for the area, could be State or group of them and then upward to a national node where every night at "National Mail Hours, it would go across the country and even the world." Usually hubs would be local, in the Pittsburgh area, we were number 129 IIRC where all the Pittsburgh BBS'es would be part of that hub, Sometimes you had exceptions, we had a BBS from Exeter in the UK on the Pittsburgh hub for example so my messages would not have to wait for the National Mail Hour. For the most part, even Fidonet was mainly for computer geeks but you had geeks from other disciplines too like amateur radio for example. The technology, well, usually the BBS'es ran on IBM-PC/XT DOS compatibles, most likely using the 8086/8088 microprocessors, the typical hard drive at the time held like 10 or 20 megabytes and had 640K of RAM. To ease the length of time, you might have a mail program where you can download your Fidonet mail and messages from the forums you're interested in and download them to your PC where you can read them and reply to them and upload them net time you get online as well as get more messages. The standard modems were 300/1200/2400 baud and 9600 was coming on the scene when the internet came around, for Fidonet, the typical model was 1200/2400 baud. Also, there were no pictures, just text. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, Fidonet was making gateways to the internet and usenet, I found a message from my in 1994 discussing floaters in the eyes for example with a few others. Cody and Tristian, I think you're quite spot on where we could be today. If I may add, I think Fidonet would still be around though for the more hardcore techies, maybe we'd be stuck at the maximum of 28K/56K that the phone lines can handle and I'd still be downloaded my messages and mail on a DOS system. For data sharing like say in a medical situation, it would be a direct link from computer to computer via modem, let's say someone gets a cancer scan in Pittsburgh and the doctor wants to send it to M.D. Anderson in Texas, they would have to link modem to modem over the phone and send files that way. Myself, where would I be. Well, again, I'd most likely be on Fidonet downloading and reading/replying offline, I work in a call center for a cable company so the only thing I can think up on that is maybe it would be more secure with the cable companies maintaining a bigger share. Also, if one wants to research, they'd do it the old fashioned way, go to the encyclopedia if they have it (book, CD/DVD or cartridge form) or go to the library. This is a good one to ponder, I know there would be an alternate history Fidonet group we'd be hanging out on and possible one of us will be wondering, "what if the world was on one network, how would this alternate 2017 look like." B-) Gaming, well I do remember when Doom came out, you can go over the network of an office or do two computers, peer to peer via modem.
Thanks for the info, I'd never heard of Fidonet! I was thinking through a lot of this video "what about BBSes?" I'm too young (born in 1991) to've gotten into them at the time, but I do have an interest in that sort early-era computer networking. To me, it seems inevitable that someone would, sooner or later, have engineered a way to interconnect computers on a larger scale, whether based on point-to-point modem links or some expansion of ethernet (which my 2 minutes of research suggests could have still been developed even if ARPANET was never released to public domain). The resulting "alternate internet" would likely be very different in its technical underpinnings (possibly being more fractured/balkanized as a result), and could easily small niche for longer, but I suspect it's uses would eventually converge towards our own timeline. IMO the usefulness of the modern internet makes it a near-inevitable invention once someone manages to imagine something like it, but I _may_ be a bit biased...
I think instead of an internet culture, we would have a pirate/amateur radio culture. Likely even more isolated social bubbles for different cultures and ideologies, since they would be literally on different wavelenghts, rather than on shared websites. We would still be able to communicate globally though, before the internet Finnish radio amateurs were able to communicate with Japanese for example.
Old enough to have lived and had my formative years experienced before internet, during internet, but before the digital shift of today, I probably wouldn’t be too different. Still be into similar stuff since my interests were gotten from offline sources and I keep most my social interactions offline. Still be into computers as my computer interests were sparked pre-internet. One thing that would be different however is that it would be more difficult to keep up with friends.
Without the Internet, I wouldn't be very smart, I wouldn't have discovered many of my interests, and I wouldn't have meet so many lovely people. Not to mention I wouldn't have realized how shit the world is. ._.
+stackfl0w Nowadays, that's pretty much the same thing. Unless most of your news comes from cable TV, in which case good luck sorting fact from myth. Regardless of whether you pick Fox or CNN.
MS MMS that's really the point of what I mean. Without the Internet, I would never get factual data as the media would skew everything. Making everything you hear a potential lie and effectively believing false shit.
This brings me back to like 2008 when I was in elementary school and this one kid walked into 4th grade with a smart phone and no one really knew what it was.
11:45 I highly doubt videogames are not as popular. Single player and split screen coop will still be a huge thing. Competitive gaming existed in the 80's. However it's more like people competing in single player for high scores.
Before the Internet I always wandered about how to make two people play in two different tvs because I hated a split screen. When Nintendo 64 came with 4 players sharing one screen, that looked so wrong for me. Probably companies would try to invest on connecting video games even if that meant to put all of them in the same room with lots of cables.
No online shopping so retailers like JC Penny, K Mart, Sears and such would still thrive. Oh, don't forget the malls. Malls will still be an important part of retail.
mx5hong have fun standing in those long lines and a person who thinks they're above the job, you get it today but you lose the whole day cause each store is similar you visit, you setup the product at 8:30 at night after you relax from all that chaos 😂😂😂
SEARS Should be the AMAZON now. Walmart could focus on pushing AMAZON off the internet. Walmart has big selection and low prices.... SEARS used to sell Whole HOUSES in kit form, delivered right to you!
Don’t forget about paper media. Before the internet, there were many more pamphlets, flyers and bulk mailings for advertising/political advertising. While digital media may be controlled , print would still be available just like it has been for hundreds of years
Netflix may still exist in an alternate 2017. Remember that when it started, Netflix rented DVDs for by-mail distribution nationwide. If you're allowing for innovation with video media, keep this in mind as well.
The world would be less connected, less diverse, and all the lesser, people talk like the Internet is a cancerous thing that ruins lives but it's probably the most societally beneficial thing ever created.
Djrocks Gaming well I know that was kinda a poor choice of words to put it up against space flight, antibiotics and stuff but its complexity to me makes it the most impressive
Catalog retailers would likely be the equivalent of online shopping in the alternate timeline. Instead of looking for stuff on amazon, people would browse the sears catalog
Well because of the internet I can find things I like, talk to people, and honestly right now it is helping me write 3 story's Vietname story, trying to make a alternate Sci fi story, thanks alternate history hub! And a horror story I don't what I would do with out it
