The World Wide Web (1994)

droplister

droplister

New member
Aug 23, 2007
1,233
21
0
NYC
I'm re-listening to this today.

Recorded about 20 years ago in Hawaii, Ralph Abraham, Terence McKenna, and Rupert Sheldrake discuss the potential that lies in the web and how people will use it in the future.

I listen to a lot of recordings by these guys, but it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

Part 1:
http://www.sheldrake.org/files/audios/trialogues/www_1.mp3

Part 2:
http://www.sheldrake.org/files/audios/trialogues/www_2.mp3

I think it's a much more interesting listen than some VC at a conference today. I'm struck by Ralph Abraham's understanding of the potential and opportunity early on. I mean, Yahoo was founded in 1994.

And computers were high class:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0H96Ia7UCk]IPC Computer Ad (1994) - YouTube[/ame]

But what do I know, I was born in 1990. First computer took three neighbors and four hours to setup.

Who's got a link to a similar discussion happening today that's not myopic or self serving.

Edit:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUs7iG1mNjI"]1994: "Today": "What is the Internet, Anyway?" - YouTube[/ame]

Internet%252520Adoption%252520over%252520time%252520-%252520as%252520of%252520May10+3.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: mpbiz


Yeah 420mb was a dream back then. I had like 75mb on my 386 and struggling to load basic games like Prince of Persia. Had to use DOS and tinker with autoexec.bat and config.sys multiple times to kill some processes and free up some memory. Oh and I also had to Format c:/ once a year to clear all the crap and start fresh. Ohhh those days...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zyQ_OVyhNE]Prince Of Persia - YouTube[/ame]
 
I love hearing old stories about Google where people had to wait a week/day for "search results to be updated." Or strategies before everyone was kissing Google's ass: traffic exchanging through adult photo galleries, directory posting for referral clicks, etc...

edit: My dad always brings up a good story of when he first bought a computer with Adobe photoshop. He does package design and he was using a professional airbrush for all his photo editing. He said he was so intimidated by it that he left it on top of his shelf for awhile before opening it. It was a really big deal in NYC that he was a package designer with a computer.
 
Seriously, thank you for sharing and I couldn't agree more. A lot of the tech speeches today are full of fluff. The real gems are watching videos like these that were BEFORE people had any clue what the fuck was going on.

You know what's really funny, if you watch that video mr. funny guy in the middle sounds just like all of the people right now who have no clue what bitcoin is or why it's important.

Videos like this always remind me to stay alert and be aware. You never know what idea is out there just waiting to explode and storm the masses.
 
This is how I first got online in 1986... I had a Commodore 64 and a 300 baud modem and there was a program called Q-Link. Used to hang out in People Connection which later became AOL:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjgH27p-FAM]Vintage Q-Link (AOL) Promotion Video (1986) - YouTube[/ame]
 
I love seeing these old videos until I start thinking about how I should've registered business.com before anyone else did or how I should've started a social network where friends can get together and share photos and other stupid crap.

And by then, I'm too pissed off and depressed to even care about whatever it was the thread was about in the first place.
 
My first comp had 4mb of ram and it was another $60 for 4 more lol and you had to have pairs. Windows 3.1, I had a $1200 4x scsi cd rw burner from an uncle who hooked me up with his shit when he'd upgrade his office. He gave me Ultima Online for xmas in 1997 which I played for many thousands of hours.
 
shindig said:
My first comp had 4mb of ram and it was another $60 for 4 more lol and you had to have pairs. Windows 3.1, I had a $1200 4x scsi cd rw burner from an uncle who hooked me up with his shit when he'd upgrade his office. He gave me Ultima Online for xmas in 1997 which I played for many thousands of hours.
Click to expand...

Ultima Online, those were the days. I"m not that old but I can remember the day I started selling UO items and gold. I also remember doing everything that I possibly could just to keep my connection alive. I was poor, dial-up I rocked it.

Taught me two things:
1. Do whatever it takes to succeed, even if you do have a shit connection.
2. Decentralized/Digital currencies will be a large part of the future.

Bitcoin was/is an amazing idea. As my game currency begin to grow I kept jumping through paypal/bank problems. Let's not go into the headache that was e-gold, which was built with the idea that you couldn't charge-back and I believe was backed by "gold". I'm excited to see the future of Bitcoin and all the possibilities the technology opens up to me.

Droplister, thanks for the share. It's always nice to add to my audio library.
 
The internets was slow enough to make money then. SEO was keywords in white text below the fold. Websites were built with HTML tables, dotclear.gif was the hack to format space on a webpage. This was like one of the first things to go viral:

OGIM2iC.gif
 
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbEmm-mc_ws]Internet Show 07 - USENET - YouTube[/ame]


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUOoR70Oayo]Internet Show 11 - Netiquette - YouTube[/ame]
 
eeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrppppppppsssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkknnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn


Im connected yes!
 
  • Like
Reactions: droplister
I wasn't around that early (I'm only 30 now), but the AOL days..

Who else here was into the AOL "prog" scene? FateX spammer, havoc, fuck.. I remember coding a couple of my own (less known) punters via visual basic.. and landing OH (overhead accounts) so you could kick anyone off and scroll infinitely in chatrooms?

I met aojon back in those days.

Then I remember once getting IM'd by someone (after I was phishing for accts), with the screen name, "bountyhunter[random numbers]" - said: "3..2..1..", bam, internet connection cut off and the phone line I was using rang immediately.. Didn't answer, got all scared like a panzy.
 
Man, I remember using prodigy and just playing Leisure Suit Larry all day. I got stuck in the locker room naked cause some one stole my cloths and never ever made it passed that point.
 
Yellow Squash said:
Man, I remember using prodigy and just playing Leisure Suit Larry all day. I got stuck in the locker room naked cause some one stole my cloths and never ever made it passed that point.
Click to expand...

Loved me some leisure suit Larry. My first online experiance was at friends house in 92 or 93 when he downloaded a "ebook". Back then it was bulletin boards filled with walls of text. No pictures no video. But social was alive and well. Even though everything has changed, the internet is pretty much the same(just looks prettier)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom