4 ms·

On the one hand, I lived approximately half of my life before the mid 90s, so I should be fine not having the Internet around. But, then I think about how many

On the one hand, I lived approximately half of my life before the mid 90s, so I should be fine not having the Internet around. But, then I think about how many things I do on the Internet now and wonder how hard it would be to go back to the non-Internet way of doing things. I can remember paying bills, mortgage/rent, taxes, etc. without the use of the Internet, but it is so much easier now that it would be a royal pain to go back to the old way of doing it. I remember the old ways of making doctor appointments, buying movie tickets (finding out when movies were playing!), contacting family and friends, looking up information, buying things, etc. It would suck to have to go back to that world now that I know how much easier things can be. Just today I was reading people’s comments on a forum and they didn’t make much sense until I suddenly realized that they had no conception of buying movie tickets without assigned seats. In the old days you would have to show up at the theater, stand in line to buy tickets (with no way to know how many had already been sold), then go into the theater and hope there were still decent seats left. It would stink to go back to that situation.

thegrim33 3y ago
I'd say the issue is not just "going back to that situation", it's the world being forcefully thrown back into that situation one random day in an instant, with maybe a couple hours advanced notice, which is the bigger issue. Also the impact on other systems such as potentially long-term significant damage to the electrical grid, it's not just losing the internet. It would have an immediate, out of the blue, devastating social/industrial/economic/civilization impact.
Loughla 3y ago
Do you really think that those minor inconveniences are the issue if we suddenly lose internet access around the globe?
- irrational 3y ago
  Humans lived for thousands of years without the internet or WWW. The use of them has only been widespread for about 25 years. I assume we are smart enough to eventually figure out how to go back to how things used to be.
lanstin 3y ago
Most stores I shop at are unable to take money if their internet is down. And, to be a grumpy old man, it seems most of their employees lack experience in offline credit cards or cash and making change. And I have no way of getting cash with ATMs which seem to be via some sort of network. I don’t think I can even make phone calls or send sms without IP transit available to the phone companies.
- Shared404 3y ago
  > And, to be a grumpy old man, it seems most of their employees lack experience in offline credit cards or cash and making change. Usually the point of sale system doesn't allow any offline credit. Similarly for the making change, most point of sale systems track exact change very closely, and trying to do something outside of what eas entered into the PoS causes issues with logging/audits. (Yes, including the "I just found a $coin, can you give me different change" situations) That's before you get to the people who try to fast talk you into giving extra change. PoS Performance is also usually horribly slow and requires manager overide for anything off the happy path. Source for the above: worked as a cashier in the late 2010's.
  - lanstin 3y ago
    this, movement of discretion from the employees talking to the customer to some central platform with the possible outcomes premapped out, seems to be a general trend for highly cost conscious large stores. so often the people at the desk say i should go online to do stuff their computers won't let them do for me.
saurik 3y ago
> In the old days you would have to show up at the theater, stand in line to buy tickets (with no way to know how many had already been sold), then go into the theater and hope there were still decent seats left. It would stink to go back to that situation. Don't most theater still work this way? The ability to buy specific seats at a theater isn't an Internet thing.
- yard2010 3y ago
  It is astounding to me that in the US the seats at the movie theater are not tied to the tickets. I learned it a few weeks ago watching that Seinfeld episode and I still can't understand why it works like this..
  - irrational 3y ago
    They are today (at least all the theaters where I live). But in the 1980s and 1990s? No.
  - Izkata 3y ago
    One theater near me trialed something like that for a while, but they stopped using it very quickly. I can only assume it was confusing people and they lost sales; other than that one instance, I didn't even know this was a thing for movie theaters. They do keep track of number of seats and won't over-sell, but it's not normal to have assigned seating.
    - tohnjitor 3y ago
      I've been to a theater with assigned seating. It was great but not sure if they kept the system after selling to a competing company.
    - bigDinosaur 3y ago
      How does assigned seating confuse people?
      - 3y ago

thegrim33 3y ago

I'd say the issue is not just "going back to that situation", it's the world being forcefully thrown back into that situation one random day in an instant, with maybe a couple hours advanced notice, which is the bigger issue. Also the impact on other systems such as potentially long-term significant damage to the electrical grid, it's not just losing the internet. It would have an immediate, out of the blue, devastating social/industrial/economic/civilization impact.

Loughla 3y ago

Do you really think that those minor inconveniences are the issue if we suddenly lose internet access around the globe?

irrational 3y ago
Humans lived for thousands of years without the internet or WWW. The use of them has only been widespread for about 25 years. I assume we are smart enough to eventually figure out how to go back to how things used to be.

lanstin 3y ago

Most stores I shop at are unable to take money if their internet is down. And, to be a grumpy old man, it seems most of their employees lack experience in offline credit cards or cash and making change. And I have no way of getting cash with ATMs which seem to be via some sort of network. I don’t think I can even make phone calls or send sms without IP transit available to the phone companies.

Shared404 3y ago
> And, to be a grumpy old man, it seems most of their employees lack experience in offline credit cards or cash and making change. Usually the point of sale system doesn't allow any offline credit. Similarly for the making change, most point of sale systems track exact change very closely, and trying to do something outside of what eas entered into the PoS causes issues with logging/audits. (Yes, including the "I just found a $coin, can you give me different change" situations) That's before you get to the people who try to fast talk you into giving extra change. PoS Performance is also usually horribly slow and requires manager overide for anything off the happy path. Source for the above: worked as a cashier in the late 2010's.
- lanstin 3y ago
  this, movement of discretion from the employees talking to the customer to some central platform with the possible outcomes premapped out, seems to be a general trend for highly cost conscious large stores. so often the people at the desk say i should go online to do stuff their computers won't let them do for me.

saurik 3y ago

> In the old days you would have to show up at the theater, stand in line to buy tickets (with no way to know how many had already been sold), then go into the theater and hope there were still decent seats left. It would stink to go back to that situation. Don't most theater still work this way? The ability to buy specific seats at a theater isn't an Internet thing.

yard2010 3y ago
It is astounding to me that in the US the seats at the movie theater are not tied to the tickets. I learned it a few weeks ago watching that Seinfeld episode and I still can't understand why it works like this..
- irrational 3y ago
  They are today (at least all the theaters where I live). But in the 1980s and 1990s? No.
- Izkata 3y ago
  One theater near me trialed something like that for a while, but they stopped using it very quickly. I can only assume it was confusing people and they lost sales; other than that one instance, I didn't even know this was a thing for movie theaters. They do keep track of number of seats and won't over-sell, but it's not normal to have assigned seating.
  - tohnjitor 3y ago
    I've been to a theater with assigned seating. It was great but not sure if they kept the system after selling to a competing company.
  - bigDinosaur 3y ago
    How does assigned seating confuse people?
    - 3y ago