5 ms·

Go and find me someone that predicted it then. Edit: yes 1 to many communications existed but they either required expensive publishing or they were tied to a

Go and find me someone that predicted it then. Edit: yes 1 to many communications existed but they either required expensive publishing or they were tied to a physical location (eg a physical notice board). Internet forums are globally available for anyone who is interested to read or publish and that turns out to be phenomenally powerful but in a way that pre-internet people could not have conceived of

baq 5y ago
Maybe not back then, but I got distinctive usenet vibes back when I read Ender's Game (novel, 1985); nowadays I'd probably get reddit or facebook vibes. Not sure what parts of message boards concept existed in the 1977 version.
- watmough 5y ago
  xkcd take on this that still cracks me up: https://xkcd.com/635/ https://xkcd.com/635/
  - tomrod 5y ago
    I sorta figured reddit was a more likely representation, especially with the rise of very good but amateur accounts like /u/poppinkream
fzzzy 5y ago
The WELL was available in 1985. One of the motivations for designing the original Apple I was connecting to mainframe based bulletin boards, in the 70s. CompuServe started selling dial up access to their service in 79. GEnie was available in 85. Delphi was available in 1981. Quantum Link was available in 85 and became AOL in 88.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
asdff 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan#Global_village https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan#Global_villag...
- codeulike 5y ago
  Ok yep that's along the right lines
- phs318u 5y ago
  Wow. “So, unless aware of this dynamic, we shall at once move into a phase of panic terrors, exactly befitting a small world of tribal drums, total interdependence, and superimposed co-existence.… Terror is the normal state of any oral society, for in it everything affects everything all the time.…”
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  Roll back one academic generation further to McLuhan's mentor, Harold Innis. It was Innis who'd first drawn the connection between medium and tenor / characteristics of communication. See especially Empire and Communications and The Bias of Communication. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Innis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Innis
lostphilosopher 5y ago
"As soon as the Paris contract released the telelectroscope, it was delivered to public use, and was soon connected with the telephonic systems of the whole world. The improved 'limitless-distance' telephone was presently introduced, and the daily doings of the globe made visible to everybody, and audibly discussible, too, by witnesses separated by any number of leagues." - From the London Times of 1904, Mark Twain https://americanliterature.com/author/mark-twain/short-story/from-the-london-times-of-1904 https://americanliterature.com/author/mark-twain/short-story...
- codeulike 5y ago
  That's pretty interesting, thanks

baq 5y ago

Maybe not back then, but I got distinctive usenet vibes back when I read Ender's Game (novel, 1985); nowadays I'd probably get reddit or facebook vibes. Not sure what parts of message boards concept existed in the 1977 version.

watmough 5y ago
xkcd take on this that still cracks me up: https://xkcd.com/635/ https://xkcd.com/635/
- tomrod 5y ago
  I sorta figured reddit was a more likely representation, especially with the rise of very good but amateur accounts like /u/poppinkream

fzzzy 5y ago

The WELL was available in 1985. One of the motivations for designing the original Apple I was connecting to mainframe based bulletin boards, in the 70s. CompuServe started selling dial up access to their service in 79. GEnie was available in 85. Delphi was available in 1981. Quantum Link was available in 85 and became AOL in 88.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

asdff 5y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan#Global_village https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan#Global_villag...

codeulike 5y ago
Ok yep that's along the right lines
phs318u 5y ago
Wow. “So, unless aware of this dynamic, we shall at once move into a phase of panic terrors, exactly befitting a small world of tribal drums, total interdependence, and superimposed co-existence.… Terror is the normal state of any oral society, for in it everything affects everything all the time.…”
dredmorbius 5y ago
Roll back one academic generation further to McLuhan's mentor, Harold Innis. It was Innis who'd first drawn the connection between medium and tenor / characteristics of communication. See especially Empire and Communications and The Bias of Communication. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Innis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Innis

lostphilosopher 5y ago

"As soon as the Paris contract released the telelectroscope, it was delivered to public use, and was soon connected with the telephonic systems of the whole world. The improved 'limitless-distance' telephone was presently introduced, and the daily doings of the globe made visible to everybody, and audibly discussible, too, by witnesses separated by any number of leagues." - From the London Times of 1904, Mark Twain https://americanliterature.com/author/mark-twain/short-story/from-the-london-times-of-1904 https://americanliterature.com/author/mark-twain/short-story...

codeulike 5y ago
That's pretty interesting, thanks