A world without internet

DivingDuck · 12-07-2015 01:24AM

No internet is what awaits us in the afterlife if we're really, really bad people.

Bongalongherb · 12-07-2015 01:32AM

You might become part of the internet and electrical field energy thereafter in the afterlife for all we know. The unknown is the frightening part. Your electrical energy of electrons protons neutrons might get coaxed into a grid of electrical current on a computer program on some-ones computer

DivingDuck · 12-07-2015 01:37AM

Bongalongherb wrote: »

You might become part of the internet and electrical field energy thereafter in the afterlife for all we know. The unknown is the frightening part. Your electrical energy of electrons protons neutrons might get coaxed into a grid of electrical current on a computer program on some-ones computer

Better than being conscious with no internet...

I'm half serious here. I would genuinely hate to live in a world without the internet. While it has its drawbacks, being able to communicate near-instantly with people all over the world and having immediate access anywhere to enormous amounts of information and entertainment makes my life immeasurably better on a moment to moment basis.

I hate being without it, even for short periods of time.

Bongalongherb · 12-07-2015 01:47AM

DivingDuck wrote: »

Better than being conscious with no internet...

I'm half serious here. I would genuinely hate to live in a world without the internet. While it has its drawbacks, being able to communicate near-instantly with people all over the world and having immediate access anywhere to enormous amounts of information and entertainment makes my life immeasurably better on a moment to moment basis.

I hate being without it, even for short periods of time.

Can you picture a time when there was no internet ? I can. What did folk do then ?. They were as happy or more happy than we are now as a collective society. The 'book' was the internet. The book was - and still is the beautiful enlightenment of learning and dreams that have come to life.

The internet is great for direct fast communication to the world, but, would it really have so much of a profound impact on your life if it ceased to exist ?. That is the box of which many folk are stuck in.

DivingDuck · 12-07-2015 02:12AM

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Can you picture a time when there was no internet ? I can. What did folk do then ?. They were as happy or more happy than we are now as a collective society. The 'book' was the internet. The book was - and still is the beautiful enlightenment of learning and dreams that have come to life.

The internet is great for direct fast communication to the world, but, would it really have so much of a profound impact on your life if it ceased to exist ?. That is the box of which many folk are stuck in.

I remember the pre-internet era, and for me personally? I would never, ever want to go back to it. I fully understand and appreciate that for some people, it adds nothing to enrich their lives, and that's fine. For me, it improves my life on every possible level.

Books are great, and I'm a big reader. But with the internet, I can now get books faster and more easily than I could before the internet. It hasn't stopped me reading-- if anything, I read more now, since my phone or tablet lets me have access to a huge library of books I wouldn't cart around otherwise, and the ability to dip into books for free that I wouldn't have chanced if I'd had to pay for them first.

I can also get TV shows, movies, newspapers, magazines, and articles written by people who are interesting, but would never have been published by traditional pre-internet media. I have an impossibly vast encyclopaedia at my fingertips at any hour of the day or night, dictionaries, translators, and access to forums where people have already solved whatever problem I'm experiencing and can advise me on how best to deal with it. I have access to a variety of items for purchase that no single shop could carry, and a variety of pre-purchase reviews and opinions on those items that you could never hope to round up offline. I've learned about new foods, new music, new TV shows, new movies and all kinds of new things I would never have known about if not for the internet.

I can make friends with people in far-flung places that I would never have met otherwise, people who share my interests and convictions. I can have the kind of conversations I would never have been able to experience in a pre-internet era. I can find deals on hotels and flights that allow me to visit these people for the best possible prices in a way that would never have happened with traditional travel agents. I can research the hotel and the area before I leave so I can make all my plans in advance. If I do get lost while I'm there, I can pull my phone out and find my way back to where I need to be without worrying about wandering into an unsafe area or being late.

I can contact anyone I need to at any time, immediately, cheaply, and from anywhere. The same is true of most people who would need to reach me.

I remember life before the internet: it was expensive (in my childhood and early teens I was reading up to three books a day), and it was lonely. I cannot describe the profound and positive impact that internet has had on my life. I don't expect this to be the case for everyone, but for me personally, it was probably a life-saver, and I mean that in the most literal terms.

dxhound2005 · 12-07-2015 02:14AM

A large majority of people in the world, including 50 million Americans have no internet. Individual or collective happiness is nothing to do with internet connection.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/10/02/4-4-billion-people-around-the-world-still-dont-have-internet-heres-where-they-live/

In Myanmar, 99.5 percent of the population is offline; in Ethiopia, almost 98 percent; in Tanzania, more than 95 percent; and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just under 95 percent.

Bongalongherb · 12-07-2015 02:23AM

DivingDuck wrote: »

I remember the pre-internet era, and for me personally? I would never, ever want to go back to it. I fully understand and appreciate that for some people, it adds nothing to enrich their lives, and that's fine. For me, it improves my life on every possible level.

Books are great, and I'm a big reader. But with the internet, I can now get books faster and more easily than I could before the internet. It hasn't stopped me reading-- if anything, I read more now, since my phone or tablet lets me have access to a huge library of books I wouldn't cart around otherwise, and the ability to dip into books for free that I wouldn't have chanced if I'd had to pay for them first.

I can also get TV shows, movies, newspapers, magazines, and articles written by people who are interesting, but would never have been published by traditional pre-internet media. I have an impossibly vast encyclopaedia at my fingertips at any hour of the day or night, dictionaries, translators, and access to forums where people have already solved whatever problem I'm experiencing and can advise me on how best to deal with it. I have access to a variety of items for purchase that no single shop could carry, and a variety of pre-purchase reviews and opinions on those items that you could never hope to round up offline. I've learned about new foods, new music, new TV shows, new movies and all kinds of new things I would never have known about if not for the internet.

I can make friends with people in far-flung places that I would never have met otherwise, people who share my interests and convictions. I can have the kind of conversations I would never have been able to experience in a pre-internet era. I can find deals on hotels and flights that allow me to visit these people for the best possible prices in a way that would never have happened with traditional travel agents. I can research the hotel and the area before I leave so I can make all my plans in advance. If I do get lost while I'm there, I can pull my phone out and find my way back to where I need to be without worrying about wandering into an unsafe area or being late.

I can contact anyone I need to at any time, immediately, cheaply, and from anywhere. The same is true of most people who would need to reach me.

I remember life before the internet: it was expensive (in my childhood and early teens I was reading up to three books a day), and it was lonely. I cannot describe the profound and positive impact that internet has had on my life. I don't expect this to be the case for everyone, but for me personally, it was probably a life-saver, and I mean that in the most literal terms.

Excellent and intelligent post.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy all the same myself, and I love technology and have a keen interest in computer repair for many many years. But if the net died, It wouldn't hit me too bad personally. But yeah, you made an excellent point there indeed.

DivingDuck · 12-07-2015 02:29AM

Bongalongherb wrote: »

But if the net died, It wouldn't hit me too bad personally. But yeah, you made an excellent point there indeed.

Something I think might be easily overlooked as well is the impact of the internet as a form of competition for... Just about everything. From entertainment companies to the shops in the shopping center, almost all "traditional" businesses are competing with the internet now, and that's something which has forced them to try to either provide better services or compete on price.

Even for people who wouldn't necessarily miss the internet on a daily basis in terms of their usage and life priorities, there would probably be a knock-on effect in the removal of that competition which would be felt by everyone.

GreatDefector · 12-07-2015 02:33AM

Luckily I have built in redundancy from the pigeon coop in the back garden

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers

efb · 12-07-2015 02:52AM

I would cry, them read teletext.

KKkitty · 12-07-2015 02:57AM

I'd cry and then be wondering what the next level of Candy crush or pet rescue would be like if I could play it.

Bongalongherb · 12-07-2015 03:01AM

DivingDuck wrote: »

Something I think might be easily overlooked as well is the impact of the internet as a form of competition for... Just about everything. From entertainment companies to the shops in the shopping center, almost all "traditional" businesses are competing with the internet now, and that's something which has forced them to try to either provide better services or compete on price.

Even for people who wouldn't necessarily miss the internet on a daily basis in terms of their usage and life priorities, there would probably be a knock-on effect in the removal of that competition which would be felt by everyone.

Yes.
We can blame the torrents for that one. But there again, the torrents forced the change for all analogue music and movie businesses to pucker-up and get used to this huge change in digital format.

DivingDuck · 12-07-2015 03:08AM

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Yes.
We can blame the torrents for that one. But there again, the torrents forced the change for all analogue music and movie businesses to pucker-up and get used to this huge change in digital format.

It's not just torrents, though: it's EBay, Amazon, etc. I notice a huge difference in the attitude of shops these days compared with even ten years ago. Lately, it seems that when I ask for something which isn't in stock, they immediately offer to order it, whereas ten or fifteen years ago, you'd get a blank look and a "Whaaa? Ah, no, we wouldn't be bothered with them things."

The Internet is like RyanAir: you don't have to like it or use it, but there's no denying that its presence has improved life for consumers simply by existing and providing a competition that others have to try to beat.

PizzamanIRL · 12-07-2015 04:06AM

OP you scared me for a minute with the title. I thought the internet was gone.

Niemoj · 12-07-2015 04:10AM

I'd cry, cry and cry again and then get on with my life.

Bongalongherb · 12-07-2015 06:20AM

Do you see in a way, the most real state is the state of nothing, that's what it's going to all come to... but if somebody is going to argue, that the basic reality is nothingness, where does all this come from ? obviously from nothingness, ha ha ha ha.

It all disappeared into nothingness, what is the feeling ? it's a curious thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF5taT7X4u0

Menas · 12-07-2015 07:48AM

I think I would be happy for a while. Get life back to the basics.
When I go on holiday I move my sim in to a 10 year old 'unsmart' phone. Just to stop been online.

Gerry Rio · 12-07-2015 01:19PM

Geroge Carlin once said all that would be needed to send us back to the Stone Age would be for electricity to stop working worldwide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZWA_cw9tss&list=RD3ZWA_cw9tss

Let's go less extreme than that and ask two questions:

What would happen if all internet stopped worldwide and never came back?

Would you be able to go back to your pre internet ways?

The questions raised by Carlin in the above video are very relative to a world without internet too as George recorded it in a time when the internet either didnt have much of an impact in the world or was just as the "I use it for email only" stage.

Without internet Im presuming the security issues it would cause worldwide would be massive.

What would a world without internet look like? A lot simpler no doubt, but infinitely less linked in.