I wasn't sure where best to put this topic. This isn't just about Trek. And has this topic been dealt with already elsewhere?

But I was reading about how nowadays, people seemed so overwhelmed with information, they don't connect as well as they used to, they don't have as many friends, there's more rudeness.

And one recent article in particular told about professors complaining about rude students--using cell phones during class, and certainly cheating.

So maybe in ST's future, when the world war happens, the Internet is destroyed, and afterward the people who rebuild civilization decide not to make internet access so quick and easy. There's still online information, but it's organized totally differently.

The Enterprise might have an intranet, maybe it's what we call a newsgroup with links. Certainly people who post spam and viruses would be quickly identified and dealt with very harshly.

In the TNG period, instead of logging on the internet to find some data, people just ask the computer.

Unfortunately, we don't get much of a sense of the computer science technology on Archer's Enterprise. But there's no internet--because they wanted to avoid the problems of the late 20th century's internet.

I don't suppose that's what Berman and Braga had in mind, but it's a possible explanation.

The same would be for Star Wars, Farscape, etc.

Futurama's explanation would be something really wacky. I don't remember the internet being mentioned on Futurama?

Of course, they should have done other things differently too, on Star Trek. They could have helmets which transmit audio, video, chemical analysis, all the way around each crewmember, so nobody can sneak up on them. The data would be constantly transmitted to the ship so the ship's crew will always know what the landing party is up to. The communicators would be on constantly so the ship's crew can listen in at all times.

Now, the difference with our internet is that all that data isn't immediately posted on somebody's blog and duplicated on a hundred other websites and parodied on a hundred other websites.

That's all I feel like posting on that for now.

Is this plausible?

In the TNG period, instead of logging on the internet to find some data, people just ask the computer.


Because it automatically connects up to all the databases.

By the way, they show the Internet in Past Tense (DS9).

On Firefly, there's frequent mention made of a Cortex, which is made out to be their version of the Internet. I also believe there have been a couple references to people having e-mail on Babylon 5. Of course in the cyberpunk sub-genre, there's typically some fancy-shmancy VR variation of the Internet (which has always struck me as being a tad silly, but that's just me).

Isn't there a "Holo-net" in Star Wars? Or is that just something I am remembering from the video games.

For a really different take on the Internet in a SF novel, check out Pandora's Star (Peter F. Hamilton). Everyone pretty much has WI-FI in their heads and it makes life very interesting...

-Jason

Yep, there is a Holo-net, at least in the novels. Many SF authors include some form of Internet in their books, though, ranging from Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game), Vernor Vinge (A Fire Upon the Deep), and Dan Simmons (Hyperion).

For that matter, in Hyperion implants for instant data access have made books sadly nearly obsolete.

At least in TNG and beyond, its basically a massive database called LCARS (Library Access And Retrieval System) My guess is that there's a Starfleet branch that is responsible for adding information to LCARS and all people do is retrieve the information.

While many might consider that this method isn't open to all and there might be some freedoms being limited. I'm guessing that people still have other methods to submit things and that if you want to have your stuff displayed on the giant public access system, then you have to yield to the regulations that Starfleet has concerning LCARS.

Ships would have a SAN (Shipboard Area Network), which is a variation of LANs (Local Area Networks).

When the original series was being done, nobody knew there would be an Internet. For that matter, most of Next Gen and at least half of DS9 were done before the Internet caught on, and Voyager was out of contact with the rest of Starfleet. As for 'Enterprise', Capt. Archer would either (a) tell somebody to check the onboard database for something; or (b) contact Earth/Starfleet HQ/wherever for information.

The Internet will probably be with us for all time. Some believe that the Internet will BECOME a sentient being in its own right, and if that ever happens, why will it need us?

because Bill Gates secretly installed errors into it.

From the Memory Alpha website
memory-alpha.fandom.com an entry is
"Galactic Computer Network" and it says

"The Galactic Computer Network was a computer network referenced in a draft of the script of the Star Trek: The Next Generation first season episode "Coming of Age". This script revealed that Mordock was a legend on the Galactic Computer Network thanks to his Mordock Strategy, which was in turn revealed as a move in Benzite chess. It seems to have been intended as a 24th century equivalent of the internet."
Plus a 2011 episode of
The Simpsons
"Holidays of Future Passed" made reference to an Ultranet , created sometime before 2041

DS9's Past Tense (taking place in 2024!) refers to people having channels. I forget the exact details as it's been a long time since I've seen the episodes. But, iirc, they were like a combination of a TV Channel and a Youtube channel but more formal. I.e., you needed a license to operate one. So, probably more like a TV Channel. They even referenced ads before getting to the content;).

That's right.

Chris - But, iirc, they were like a combination of a TV Channel and a Youtube channel but more formal. I.e., you needed a license to operate one.

Sounds more like ham radio. ;-)

Kind of interesting with how they sort of saw our current emerging Network Society (everyone has a voice), but still under the thumb of the old Mass Society (only approved people have a voice).

Of course, the out-of-universe answer is that a lot of these Sci-Fi shows and movies were made decades ago (Forbidden Planet is approaching it's 70th Anniversary). Long before the Internet, as we know it, was even thought of.