Early uses of the Internet as plot point

From movies, TV, books, whatever.

Of course the Sandra Bullock classic “The Net” (1995) comes to mind, where a guy riding around with his laptop can access and hack any computer in the world, sorta like a bad guy version of “CSI.”

Not quite the Internet, but Jumping Jack Flash (1986) is about a banker (Whoopi Goldberg) who comes into communication with a spy through the bank’s computer network (for some reason he can’t get to real help) and ends up saving his life and breaking up an espionage ring.

Again, not really the internet, but Wargames is a great movie. Matthew Broderick hacks into a government computer site and launches a WW III simulation.

Ithink the first was War Games, about a boy who uses the internet (and I mean internet) to hack the military’s cimputer systems.

In Oxford Blues, Rob Lowe uses the internet to hack his school’s computer system and give himeself a 4.0, so that with the help of a gorgeous, fabulously wealthy woman who lusts after him, he can get into Oxford and marry a princess. I loved that film because it was so much like my own life.

Interesting thing to note: early movies about the internet often featured Ally Sheedy. Okay, not so interesting.

“A logic named Joe” (1946) by Murray Leinster is commonly thought of as the first work in literature to refer to some sort of internet like we know it today.

Some of the notable early works on the subject include As We May Think(Vannever Bush, 1945), The Shockwave Rider (John Brunner, 1975), True Names, (Vernor Vinge, 1984), and Neuromancer (William Gibson, 1985)

Isaac Asimov’s “Multivac” in some incarnations was assumed to be networked with all computers in the world.

Believe it or not, there was an old episode of Hawaii 5-0 where a villain was getting away with crimes by dialing into a police computer using a rotary phone and a stolen list of codes.

I just had to come in and say that I saw this thread earlier, and thought to myself "My god, I’d forgotten all about “The Net”

Guess which movie happened to be on TV tonight?

I love a good coincidence.

Umm… was it really the internet?? Been a long time since I saw the movie, but I remember the kid using a 6500-baud phone modem or something like that, randomly calling every number in a particular california exchange looking for a software company, and happening to hit the millitary system. Nothing internetey about that.

Before we had DSL and T1’s we connected with modems. Before that, we threw rocks and sticks at telephone wires to conntect.

The military computer system was the backbone of what would become the internet. Although I don’t think they ever attached such important systems to it like they did in the movie.

In a different movie, another Matthew Broderick character hacks into a school computer to reduce his number of absences so he can get away with playing hooky. I think it was called Wargames.

Not the Internet exactly, but it’s something.

Uh, I think you meant Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

I know what I said, darn it.

Apartment 3G (or H - whatever) around 1994 or 1995 had a storyline about one of the women getting harrassing emails. This shown by a monitor with

EMAIL FROM THE INTERNET

written on it in large unfriendly letters.

Even before Leinster was “The Machine Stops” by E M Forster, where all people are in little cubbies connected to each other by what now would be the internet. Chaos ensues when the machine breaks. I’m not sure that we’d be in any better shape than the people in the story.

Actually, being able to control the nuclear weapons of the country from anywhere was precisely why the internet was developed.

Here’s a concise History of the Internet.

It was a major plot point in David Brin’s Earth (1990).

Good catch on A Logic Named Joe, Shalmanese, I loved that story!

It’s a decade later, so, given the glacial pace at which that strip is written, the character might actually be getting around to answering that e-mail.

The Department of Defense certainly was central to the development of the ARPAnet, which became the Internet. But as I understand it, the DOD uses its own closed computer network for military purposes, precisely to keep it out of reach of the general public and Internet hackers.

Thus, it does not seem likely that Matthew Broderick reached the DOD through the ARPAnet or Internet in WarGames. He lucked into the DOD’s own network through a relatively low tech dial-up.

There was, mid 80’s, a Michael F. Flynn story where something called “the datanet” (IIRC) was instrumental for part of the plot. The story was Teufelheim, IIRC. (anyone who knows where it might be collected let me know!)