Alternate History

[Arturo]

There is a YouTube channel I subscribe to called "AlternateHistoryHub". The channel is as described, following different timelines after asking questions such as "What If America Had Nuked China?" There are also a couple geeky questions asked that are peppered through the video list but this one caught my eye in particular:

"What if the Internet Never Existed?"

Fairly interesting. I think if the internet never existed, for me, I would probably be playing video games and going outside when I was bored. I'm not sure what kind of job I would have or if I would even graduate High School as it seems both my Dad and my Sister dropped out so I would likely follow that tradition. I'd probably flaunt my Mexican heritage much more as I originally did in middle school. The one reason I stopped is because more people were going onto the internet and becoming different people than they would have originally have been. They has different views than I did since I did not have the internet, so it was difficult to connect to these people.

[Davin]

That's interesting. Though I think that either file transfers would have started happening without the internet (probably through the phones and cell towers), or maybe texting would not have happened as it is close to how the internet started.

[Arturo]

That's interesting. Though I think that either file transfers would have started happening without the internet (probably through the phones and cell towers), or maybe texting would not have happened as it is close to how the internet started.

Yeah, we would probably have a make shift internet through cell phone towers. There might have been a way to improve cell phone speed relative to our timeline but they probably would have a greater grip on finances and economics. Although that can't happen if we are talking about no internet or internet-like things.

[Dragonia]

Without the internet, I might still be a Christian....
Thank GOD for the internet. (Or Al Gore, depending on what you believe)

[Arturo]

Without the internet, I might still be a Christian....
Thank GOD for the internet. (Or Al Gore, depending on what you believe)

 

[Icarus]

Not alternate history is contained in a book that I just finished. The book: Fantasyland...by Kurt Adersen is a history of the United states beginning with the pilgrims of Plymouth rock fame. The book is a 500 year of of history. Subtitle; How America went haywire.


Andersen (not misspelled... I never could remember the difference between the spelling of Swedish names and Norwegian names....It appears that the difference is in the use of the letter e or a as the last vowel )  The author is an American of considerable achievement with numerous other best selling books to his his credit.

This is a book that details the history of the progression of cultural and religious postures that culminate in our present irrational madness.

Easy read. Near bulletproof observations of the social and religious trends as time went by.  Not the same sort of screed that we read in Dawkins, Hitchens, Harriss and so on.  These are historical accounts of what the puritans and their successors 500 years later came to embrace.  Fantasyland is an appropriate title.  I recommend this as a book that is fun and perhaps revealing about our history. Andersen never does say that he is of an atheist bent.

[Dave]

^
Well, I have always considered America as being to often controlled by men who live more in a dream world than the real one. "The American Dream" is, and always has been, fantasy. Ambition (within the bounds of possibility) is great, dreams are just wishful thinking in this context.

Kurt Andersen's Wiki page has all the signs of being autobiographical, nothing about his beliefs