It's 2015, but the Internet was never invented. More specifically, there is no civilian network of personal computers.
How did this come to pass? What is this world like compared to our own? As thanks for participating, have a Chinese sunrise.
>>43890412
How would it come to pass? Cold War never ended, it remained military tech for communication.
As to how it compares, probably similar to Fallout but with a lowered tech level
>>43890488
>As to how it compares, probably similar to Fallout but with a lowered tech level
Never played. tl;dr?
>>43890412
No furries, for one.
>>43890768
Computer never progressed beyond tubes and green on black. They remained purely for technical purposes and nothing more. Still use the dash and parentheses commands. games are only 8-bit like a green and black oregan trail. Computer to computer connection is almost non-existant and almost entirely reserved for military purposes as they had to lay cables just for it base to base. Generally speaking the public almost never took interest in home computers as they were expensive and you couldn't do much but do work or write a diary.
>>43891225
How does that affect culture? I know Fallout's thing is "super-patriotism and blind optimism", but I don't just want a tongue-in-cheek parody of 1950s culture.
>>43891280
No idea. Fallouts theme is basically 50's culture frozen in time so i can't say its actually effected it at all since no culturetime has passed.
We'd all be connected through Videotex-like systems. Central servers would broadcast images, sound, text ect. across channels you could switch through with a TV.
I imagine we'd have a fraction of the information we do now, creating societies far more uninformed by comparison. Governments would be able to control all the information that wasn't being produced by traditional forms of press media.
I'd also wager it would wind up like very early internet, with a small minority digging beneath the surface, building their own servers and producing content for small circles of people that would only spread by word of mouth.
Eventually an internet would be unavoidable, but being born in an era of videotex would ultimately change the way we view networks, at least for a time.
>>43890412
Some thoughts, based on my experience as an EEfag:
Such a situation *could* have occurred if, say for national security reasons, the FCC was more anal retentive about telco regulation like it is for radio regulation. ie, no encrypted digital transmissions, can only have a publicly accessible "server" if you have a license, have to display callsign on top of a page etc. Combine this with a shittier economy (re: lower demand for high-end luxury electronics like PCs or videogame consoles) and you get a very stunted development of the Internet and PCs as a whole.
You know your graphics cards? They only exist due to extensive research into parallel computing (as a means of creating better AI). This didn't come to fruition but they discovered that parallel computing can be used to more easily display graphics by splitting the load onto a separate CPU. But, the latter was only commercialized due to demand from graphics designers and videogamers. No demand for either means no 3D videogames.
Some things would have remained. BBSes go back to the 80s and likely would have always been around. *chan type websites are derivative of that so imageboards (though with much smaller images) would have still likely existed. Basically the Internet would have stopped at dial-up and you would still be able to use a payphone to dial into a BBS assuming you could plug a computer into it.
Remember the 80s? It would have looked somewhat like that. Mail-order catalogs would still be popular and commercial radio would still be relevant. TV wouldn't be sliding like it is today either. The analog telephone network would still be the #1 way to communicate, though VOIP might have still been implemented. Cellphones probably would have still risen as battery tech advanced, but they would be limited to just calls and maybe text messages. Carphones, which are actually a thing now (via Onstar in GM cars) would have been implemented sooner.
>>43891742
Nobody outside of europe knows who or what videotext is. Here in the US, only Comcast offered it with it's higher-tier cable packages in the 90s. In a universe where the Internet's growth is stunted it's also very likely that AT&T would have kept their monopoly over the US and thus the development of cable TV networks would have been stunted as well.
>>43892462
The USPS would be much more profitable as there would still be a huge demand for mail, though the things you could do via fax machines would have been greatly increased (say, a store could fax over an inventory to it's HQ automatically at a given hour). Perhaps electronic fax machines (ie fax machines with a digital screen instead of a paper printer) might have become popular.
>>43890893There were furries before the internet, they were just a much smaller in number.
>>43891225
>Computer never progressed beyond tubes and green on black. They remained purely for technical purposes and nothing more.
In this case radios are still things that take up 3-5 feet as the transistor was never developed. It's worth remembering that fancy real time graphical (text) displays only came about because of the transistor, before that computers would print output on paper, not a screen. Support for this setup still exists in Linux/Unix.
Vacuum tubes are expensive, energy intensive, hot and fragile. There is no consumer computing world with them. And there is certainly no videogames with them either aside from Dungeons & Dragons (which is based all off simple dicerolls, and output can be printed to paper).
>Generally speaking the public almost never took interest in home computers as they were expensive and you couldn't do much but do work or write a diary.
You're confusing 1950s era computers with 1980s ones. It's a simple mistake to make, as most people don't remember what computers looked like before things like the C64 or Zedex Spectrum. 1950s computers were room-filling monsters that had less computing power than a digital watch. 1980s computers were ten times more powerful and over one hundred times more energy efficient by comparison.
>>43892665
Fallout's computers *are* room-filling monsters, most of the time you only see the terminals.
>>43892735
True but Robco still made desktops that were on par with late 70s machines. It's also worth noting that the pip-boy is (in the lore) probably a derivative of a handheld inventory scanner/organizer.
Fallout's computers are more 70s/80s than 40s/50s. That's a necessary compromise though.
>>43892608They just walked in single file to disguise their numbers.
>>43892530
>The USPS would be much more profitable as there would still be a huge demand for mail, though the things you could do via fax machines would have been greatly increased (say, a store could fax over an inventory to it's HQ automatically at a given hour). Perhaps electronic fax machines (ie fax machines with a digital screen instead of a paper printer) might have become popular.
Random aside, but I used to run a tiny, tiny grocery store in the middle of nowhere, and the company that supplied all our product had a wonderfully old-school method of ordering inventory. Every week, I would take this heavy-ass "handheld" device (which did not have an interface screen, only numbers) and punch in the item number and quantity for each product that I wanted delivered. I had to be very careful not to hit the wrong button, because there was no way to fix a mistake other than shutting the machine off and starting over, and without a display screen there was no way to be sure that I had punched everything in correctly).
Once I was sure I had all that week's order perfectly coded in, I attached the device to the store's phone headset via the rubber seal, (so now imagine holding a metal brick in one hand with a corded phone headset stuck to it) and then dialed the company's number. When it picked up, I pushed a button on the inventory device and it started modem-talking its way down the list through its speaker into the receiver of the phone headset.
A few days later I would find out whether or not I did everything right. I can't remember the name of it or I would post a picture.
>>43890412
>How did this come to pass?
illuminati
>What is this world like compared to our own?
The bomb on world trade center was never stopped.
Anthras on letters that lead to checking letters for stuff happen earlier
Phone spying happens earlier
Invasion of the countries happens earlier.
Arab Spring dont happen, but terrotists attack countries and they have connections with countries with some countries helping them.
Isis invade stuff and people run from their live to other countries like today.
everything happens faster with no internet to people use to comaplain.
SJW do stuff and and few on tv complain, others on tv complain about those who complaining, using the same tatics they do with trump
>>43893674
phone spying happened as early as the 1930s due to the first red scare
>everything happens faster with no internet to people use to comaplain.
what do you mean by "faster"? You can't get faster than the Internet. If you're talking about "world events" then things happen slower since infomation cannot be moved as quickly
>>43894987
Not that guy, but think what he means is that the events that are unfolding now would have unfolded a decade or so earlier
>>43891368
>>43891280
I'd say more like the 80's frozen in time tech wise. The cellular probably catches on, but without the internet its just a phone. Maybe we create video phones faster? Letters will still be a thing. Cable never dies. More people read in public. World cultures never really intermingle. Weebs probably don't exist and SJW's are more akin to their 60s counterparts rather than the mass of angry lesbians that control it now. There's still a payphone on every street in urban places.
>>43898546
I love seeing these. You got any more?
>>43895498
Perhaps, depends if HW could secure a second term in 1991 and if the Democrats were able to get a woman into the White House in 1997 (some lady did run back then but I can't remember who) which would have caused all the current Tea Party shit to rise in 2001 with Ron Paul and the Newt following 9/11 (I'm of the opinion that regardless 9/11 would have happened anyway, as the events that caused it stem from a lack of communication amongst government agencies). The 2000 dotcom bubble would have been our 2008 crash; Enron's collapse would have been our Lehman Bros.
>>43898575
weebs have always existed and modern SJWs exist regardless; in fact it was in the 90s with Clinton did the Democrats try to go the full multicult route by replacing their union base with women and minorities. It's worth noting that in the real world this backfired which led to the creation of the modern far right. Also, modern SJWs have their roots in post-60s political discourse that was created by angry lesbians. Arguably, TV makes said SJWs stronger.
>>43899560
Personally i'd think the internet is making modern third wavers crazy not TV. TV gets the dumbed down parred down version of what they're truly thinking and saying where imageboards and forums are full of the real stuff, the crazy stuff. Ever actually go on those and just observe? The general hum is absolutely hatred towards men because penis's and thet even talk about castration days. That shit wouldn't fly on TV and i guarantee some actually believe in what they're posting. That shit wouldn't be allowed on 50-60's era style tv regulations where they want to promote wholesome straight nuclear family or more kids family to keep consumerism up and keep the war effort in soldiers. Feminism seems pretty dead due to that in fallout until after the big boom.
>>43901015
SJWs come from TV. It is the TV's version of the world that they want to live in, when they see reality (which is often ugly) they cry. Remember that all the SJWs you see on tumblr today were latch-key kids in the 90s that were raised by a TV.
>That shit wouldn't fly on TV
Would it? TV media is far more liberal than any other form of media. Of course there are extreme examples of tumblrism, but it all has one core constant: they want the world to be politically correct (by force if need be). Their standards for the world (ie that everyone hugs and kisses each other, nobody is made unhappy, etc) are all clearly inspired by TV content standards if you look at the larger picture.
>That shit wouldn't be allowed on 50-60's era style tv regulations where they want to promote wholesome straight nuclear family or more kids family to keep consumerism up and keep the war effort in soldiers
50s and 60s TV was different from 80s and 90s TV. A lot of this has to do with demographics: the former descended entirely from radio and traditional threater whilst the latter gave rise to TV-only movie and cartoon franchises. Furthermore, the former catered to people born in the early 1900s, the latter is catered to boomers born in the 1950s and 60s (and their children born in the late 80s and 90s). Also, by the 1980s people had realized how to sell things to *children* via TV. Which is why there's a huge increase in toy brands around that time, as marketers had a direct avenue to give toy advertisements to children.
Anyway, as a result 90s era TV is where PCism and SJWism stem from. The Internet is just a new place SJWs decided to congregate like everyone else. The far right is the same, see the Tea Party movement rising to prominence using social/digital media in 2008 and 2009.
>>43901419
>TV media is far more liberal than any other form of media.
I should qualify this: mainstream TV is more liberal than any other medium however local (and often public access) TV tends to be about as conservative as AM radio (lots of church related programs and so forth). Clearchannel, which has risen to prominence as local TV stations die off, is hardline conservative but is a new phenomenon and one that only exists because over-the-air TV is dying as it's target demographic ages out of existence.
But on the whole, the "largest" TV networks historically trended towards liberal opinions. Walter Cronkite was against both segregation and Vietnam. Those were two issues that were greatly influenced by the rise of TV as a news medium.
>>43898575
That actually makes sense. The 80's were kind of a puerile version of the 50's, just with more cocaine.
