If the internet completely disappeared what would life be like

Computers have in the past and can in the fully future communicate via copper phone lines, radio frequencies, infrared ight, coaxial cables, optical fibers, and light beams, ALL without using the internet.

P H J wrote:

Computers have in the past and can in the fully future communicate via copper phone lines, radio frequencies, infrared ight, coaxial cables, optical fibers, and light beams, ALL without using the internet.

Sure, but that's missing the point a bit too. The internet uses underlying mechanisms to move packets around and there are, of course, other communications that have nothing to do with the internet.

The question is surely about the global connectedness and interoperation of the internet? This is what makes the internet interesting. Sure - I can communicate point to point with someone on the other side of the world whether or not we have the internet, but a web site (for example) that can be used by everyone with a 'net connection is a different thing.

The Newspaper

The Phone

The Television

The Radio

The Stereo

Books

Movies / Dates / Getting Some.

Arkansas

Well, you'd have an entire generation of people who are completely clueless and helpless -- the millenials. They basically can't function without a smartphone to tell them where to go, where to eat, what to order, what movie to watch, where to turn right or left...

Baby boomers would have to come out of retirement to create re-education camps for millenials to teach them life skills like how to read a Rand McNally Road Atlas. Etc.

I might actually have to leave my mother's basement and talk to people again. That would be rough.

Seriously, though, the modern economy would grind to a halt for awhile, but we are an adaptable species, I think we can adjust. Although we would function on a much less efficient level and some of my Internet-based hobbies would be wiped away.

I've lived outdoors without Internet access, and would only use it to check my email and baseball standings once a week, so I understand well what it means to be free from the Internet and computers. These things certainly have an effect on our ability and willingness to connect with those in our immediate physical space.

Email predates the internet. I remember using email that wasn't internet based.

I remember doing a 15-page research paper in high school having to use the library's card catalog.

I remember using carbon paper to make copies of a document.

I'm only 37. Graduated high school in 1996...the dreaded low mileage era, but I was running 80-90 miles a week in the offseason and none of my teammates were doing less than 60-70.

I remember using the street map in the phone book to plot out running routes.

Pay phones, rotary phones, etc.

Alan

realistdude wrote:

Printed pornography would make a resurgence, as would DVD sales of porn.

This. I used to have a stash of printed and movies in the early 90s.

Someone will nitpick me, but the "internet" has been around a long time -- 1960s? Probably what the OP means is the "World Wide Web", or communicating via the http protocol...which really happened around 1993/1994, but for many didn't even crack their consciousness until the late 1990s.

Prior to HTTP we still used e-mail, still had discussions on usenet (think: rec.running), used things like gopher, ftp, etc. It wasn't graphical and hardly anyone outside of academia used it. But the internet existed. And has for a long time.

Department of State, CIA, FBI, INS, IRS, DHS, TSA and some major police forces couldn't function without the Internet.

[/quote]

All of these were functioning before the internet.

Though.... many people feel INS is not functioning now.

Any Which Way But Loose wrote:

Department of State, CIA, FBI, INS, IRS, DHS, TSA and some major police forces couldn't function without the Internet.

All of these were functioning before the internet.

Though.... many people feel INS is not functioning now.[/quote]

Yea, not like any of those function smoothly with the Internet.

I work for a government agency, and the place probably has become more bureaucratic and dysfunctional with the advent of the Internet.

What is the ins?

You mean ice?

And the porn! What about the porn!

First, there would be a massive economic collapse followed by widespread unemployment and suffering... possibly wide spread starvation depending on how long it took to get the food supply chain functioning without instant communication among computer networks. Standards of living throughout the world would drop significantly. Really bad stuff.

Next, there would be a huge world-wide effort to replace the internet with something more robust.

Something to think about, several years ago Congress gave the President an off switch for the internet, supposedly for national security purposes. Under what circumstances would the President turn off the internet? How would that make us more secure?

Tinfoil Hat wrote:

Prior to HTTP we still used e-mail, still had discussions on usenet (think: rec.running), used things like gopher, ftp, etc. It wasn't graphical and hardly anyone outside of academia used it. But the internet existed. And has for a long time.

I used IRC when it first came out, which was awesome and formed the base for modern chats, taken over by yahoo etc which destroyed it. Now you can't find any good chat places anymore.

Better.

- Mike Rossi

What do you mean there is an off switch for the internet?

Isn't the Internet stored on servers globally? How would the US control the ISPs of other nations?

No more spam

'In 2010 Lieberman proposed a bill that would allow the President to do that, but it went nowhere. So Congress did not pass that law.

In 2012 Obama signed an executive order which has a section that some experts say is basically an internet kill switch. I do not see any details as to how this would be accomplished. Keep in mind that the government has technical hooks built into a lot of high tech gear that people don't know anything about. It's entirely possible that the kill switch is already there.

http://www.cnet.com/news/obama-signs-order-outlining-emergency-internet-control/

The government has always granted itself extraordinary powers in time of war, so this is not new. It's just that it applies to the thread topic.

DiscoGary wrote:

First, there would be a massive economic collapse followed by widespread unemployment and suffering... possibly wide spread starvation depending on how long it took to get the food supply chain functioning without instant communication among computer networks. Standards of living throughout the world would drop significantly. Really bad stuff.

Next, there would be a huge world-wide effort to replace the internet with something more robust.

Something to think about, several years ago Congress gave the President an off switch for the internet, supposedly for national security purposes. Under what circumstances would the President turn off the internet? How would that make us more secure?

Only DiscoGary could try to relate this topic to Congress and the President.

Putting the disturbingly faulty legal analysis soon to follow aside, Gary, tell us how Congress gave the President an "off" switch to the internet.

Tell us how this would feasibly work. The internet is a globally distributed network connecting many autonomous networks run by private individuals, universities, and governments. What is the "off" switch you speak of?

Finally, please tell us if you heard this from Alex Jones or Glenn Beck.

As for the topic on hand, IMO, trolls would suffer from ITWS - instantaneous trolling withdrawal syndrome - and all males under 25 years old will develop chronic blue balls.