this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2025
24 points (92.9% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27938 readers
913 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I was reading a book, The Victorian Internet, which talked about how connected the Victorian era was, with wires stretching everywhere above the roads. It's probably exaggerated, but it got me thinking. There are many ways to engage in en masse interconnectivity. Computers, of course, are one of them, but we also have had, for example, messenger pigeons, drones we can send to different places, search dogs with an interconnected sniff system (I forgot what that was called), etc.

Suppose you had a civilization. Maybe it's on a planet whose environment interferes with the capabilities of a classic internet, or maybe it's a normal fantasy setting where the classic internet is cursed. However, the civilization still needs some kind of apparatus of interconnectivity. What's the best/closest thing you can think of as a replacement for the internet without it being the internet as we know it?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Ah, what you're describing here is Plato's cave; a place underground so deep that you cannot see the stars. The starry sky, of course, is a metaphor for the internet, or for universal knowledge.

I think in such a world where there can be no internet, there can be no energy either. Because just like the internet, energy requires a straight line to travel along. But the internet could only not exist, if such straight lines were impossible, like in a very wrapped space (i.e. Jungle). In this case, Information could only be exchanged within small neighbourhoods, leading to the fragmentation of the space.

Plato, of course, provides a solution: You have to get out of the cave first, before you can reach enlightenment. In real life, such a thing is equivalent so "lifting yourself out of the swamp you have surrounded yourself with, and let go of earthly affections". In a jungle, you could rise above the trees, to have a direct line of sight to the sky. Then, you can communicate. This idea is often expressed in the form of an arrow, which you shoot up at its origin, rising it above the trees and obstacles, only for it to travel in a straight line and come down somewhere else. So basically, the internet is arrows of information being exchanged.

Does that give you some ideas?