The scenario presented here seems to mistake the Web for the Internet.
Before the Web was invented, Usenet (and to a lesser extent, WAIS and Gopher) was a thriving protocol, with relatively large numbers of people participating daily. Usenet was my first introduction to the Internet, and for years, it was to me what Facebook is to many people now.
There were MUDs where we spent many late hours engaged with other Internet users around the world, and yes, our email systems were on the Internet.
Thousands of independent ISPs were thriving before the Web came along, most having gotten their start as dial-up BBSes. Each provided access to a wealth of Internet services.
For that matter, hyperlinking was already commonplace in Gopher, and fairly mature in Hypercard.
CD-ROMs were introducing rich multimedia experiences before the Web came along, and it doesn't take much of an imagination to move from CD-ROMs and Gopher to something very similar to the Web we know today.
It's fun to imagine alternate dystopian histories, but the one described here is far-fetched, to say the very least.
Before the Web was invented, Usenet (and to a lesser extent, WAIS and Gopher) was a thriving protocol, with relatively large numbers of people participating daily. Usenet was my first introduction to the Internet, and for years, it was to me what Facebook is to many people now.
There were MUDs where we spent many late hours engaged with other Internet users around the world, and yes, our email systems were on the Internet.
Thousands of independent ISPs were thriving before the Web came along, most having gotten their start as dial-up BBSes. Each provided access to a wealth of Internet services.
For that matter, hyperlinking was already commonplace in Gopher, and fairly mature in Hypercard.
CD-ROMs were introducing rich multimedia experiences before the Web came along, and it doesn't take much of an imagination to move from CD-ROMs and Gopher to something very similar to the Web we know today.
It's fun to imagine alternate dystopian histories, but the one described here is far-fetched, to say the very least.