Mark Twain wrote a story about the internet in 1898

[noracharles]

From Colin Murdock, at Cracked

"Day by day, and night by night, he called up one corner of the globe after another, and looked upon its life, and studied its strange sights, and spoke with its people. ... He seldom spoke, and I never interrupted him when he was absorbed in this amusement."

Fun :-)

My favorite description of the internet (other than it's "a series of tubes") is in Vernor Vinge's True Names, which I must have read around 1986 or 1987.

I thought it sounded a bit lonely then, hanging out in chatrooms and forums with a bunch of bitchy, backstabbing people. But in reality, people on the internet turned out to be much nicer.

Comments

[calvinahobbes]

That whole article calls up some eery stuff. Although I wonder how much modern electronic gadget design has actually been influenced by Star Trek rather than some 'freaky' prediction :o)

The Vinge story sounds really cool, I've never heard of it. You were reading things in 1986! I was... not ;o)

[noracharles]

I was wondering the same thing. Surely the tech geeks are sci fi fans, and cultural osmosis makes sure we know how things are supposed to look.

Jeg er voksen og følsom :-D
Den blev udgivet i noget der hed Mizar serien, en virkelig velredigeret samling af det bedste science fiction. Jeg har senere fundet ud af at det var virkelige klassikere. Mange af dem har nok haft ret stor indflydelse på mine tanker og følelser - eller måske har jeg bare meget tilfælles med redaktøren.

[calvinahobbes]

Hehe, as someone who's still not entirely convinced that the tablet format is the most handy it suddenly makes a lot of sense if it's been dictated by a 70s show ;oP

Hihihi ;o)

Jeg har aldrig hørt om serien, men jeg er heller ingen sci-fi-læser. Da jeg var yngre var jeg altid meget mere tiltrukket af fantasy ~ fiktion om pre-industrielle samfund.