# Early uses of the Internet as plot point **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 5, 2005, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646 "2005-11-05T14:20:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/21 "2005-11-06T11:28:47Z")
(1982) [Superman and The Computer Masters of Metropolis](http://cache.tias.com/stores/tnc/pictures/6668a.jpg), featuring the TRS-180 and the computer Whiz Kids, Shanna and Alex, guest-starring Wonder Woman and Lex Luthor. (1984) John Varley’s novella “Press Enter” in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. Granted, these are more proto-internet stories than anything. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/22 "2005-11-06T11:36:00Z")
One of the first “internetty” things I read was Clifford Stoll’s 1989 _The Cuckoo’s Egg_ and while it reads like a weird, hippy west coast detective story for nerds, it is factual so “plot point” may be stretching things. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/23 "2005-11-06T11:41:15Z")
**Copycat** was a movie where the plot was driven by the internet. It’s embarassing to watch it now based on the “gee golly whiz” attitude the film takes toward computers in general. ---
**Author:** ![Tevildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Tevildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tevildo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/24 "2005-11-06T12:06:56Z")
If Asimov’s “Multivac” is a legitimate candidate, then we have to mention “The Machine Stops” - E M Forster, 1909. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/25 "2005-11-06T12:40:47Z")
H.G. Wells [World Brain Essay](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Brain) is creepily accurate for 1938, but I’d hardly consider a speculative essay to have a ‘plot point’. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/26 "2005-11-06T13:58:08Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > 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. Okay, I’m flipping back kinduv. Whether it was a closed network, ARPAnet, or the internet as we know it is irrelevant, since we’re allowing completely fictional versions of the internet here. The fact that the master computer in ‘wargames’ was able to access nuclear launching stations in various parts of the country, spy satellites, etcetera would require some sort of ‘internetworking’, and that was an important part of the plot premise. I still think that the kid did not use any kind of standing network to access the master computer… he blundered across a dialup phone line that led straight into it, wherever it was. And direct phone dialup networking between two computers does not, to me, qualify as a pre-Internet… there has to be several machines permanently connected for that. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/27 "2005-11-06T14:10:20Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > 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_. > [@Shamalese](#): > > Uh, I think you meant Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. In _Ferris Beuller’s Day Off_, Broderick cracked the school computer to reduce his number of absences while Prinpical Rooney looked on. In _WarGames_, Broderick cracked the school computer to change Ally Sheedy’s grade on a test. “On the question why nitrogen nodules cling to the roots of plants, you have written “Love”. Do you know something about plants we don’t?” I love that movie. Actually, I love both of those movies. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/28 "2005-11-06T14:11:12Z")
The Internet and the microcomputer BBS scene were two very different things, both technically and culturally. To put it simply, the Internet was developed by Real Groups working on Real Computers and solving Real Problems. The BBS scene was invented by a pair of hobbyists snowed in by a blizzard, and was completely dominated by the absolute cheapest computers you could buy or build out of parts. (Now, that isn’t to say that ne’er the twain did meet. BBSes in the later years did connect to the Internet using gateway software, just like FidoNet and UUCP and all of the other pre-Internet protocols did before they got completely steamrollered. But BBSes that are Internet-only and cannot be direct-dialed are not really the same thing as what Ward and Randy developed, technically or culturally.) [The history of CBBS, the first BBS software, as told by its inventors.](http://www.chinet.com/html/cbbs.html) [Wikipedia on CBBS.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBBS) Probably more readable than Ward’s own telling. (As a complete tangent, [what was the first personal computer?](http://www.blinkenlights.com/pc.shtml) No, you _don’t_ know what it is, and no, you _haven’t_ used it. ;)) ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/29 "2005-11-06T15:19:11Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > The Internet and the microcomputer BBS scene were two very different things, both technically and culturally. To put it simply, the Internet was developed by Real Groups working on Real Computers and solving Real Problems. The BBS scene was invented by a pair of hobbyists snowed in by a blizzard, and was completely dominated by the absolute cheapest computers you could buy or build out of parts. /me waits patiently for the angry nerds with pitchforks. ---
**Author:** ![MessyPaint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@MessyPaint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MessyPaint)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/30 "2005-11-06T16:06:32Z")
i guess _hackers_ is kind of an obvious one… ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/31 "2005-11-06T16:46:02Z")
> [@Menocchio](#): > > 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. This reminds me of a movie from the 80s that involved this guy & gal who broke into a banking computer network on some kind of get-rich scheme (creating dozens of ATM cards so they could extract large amounts with impunity), and somehow their actions trigger a much larger financial run that brings the country’s economy to the brink of collapse. Some computer stuff was in it, but mostly I remember the scene where the guy’s using tons of ATM cards (with a policeman waiting behind him in line, none the wiser), and the girl had medium long dark hair and was really cute. No name actors to my recollection. Anyone have any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![haardvark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@haardvark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/haardvark)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/32 "2005-11-06T17:19:13Z")
Did the TV show \Whiz Kids\ (with Wojohowicz and the kid from Little House on the Prairie) have any net gimmicry in it? It almost must have, they leveraged every computer plot bunny imaginable… ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/33 "2005-11-06T17:21:42Z")
Computers were pretty vital (and laughably outdated) in [Sneakers](http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0105435/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cT1zbmVha2Vyc3xldj0xfG14PTIwfGxtPTUwMHxjbz0xfGh0bWw9MXxubT0x;fc=1;ft=22;fm=1), and that was in-- lemme check-- 1992? What? I was sure it was the mid-eighties. Oh well, unbelievably fun movie. Also, while this doesn’t really apply to the OP’s demands, [The Dying Gaul](http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0384929/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cT10aGUgZHlpbmcgZ2F1bHxldj0xfG14PTIwfGxtPTUwMHxjbz0xfGh0bWw9MXxubT0x;fc=1;ft=21)’s plot hinges on internet chat rooms, and may be cited at some point in the future for making them seem believable (no **Hackers** -style trippy animation) yet not completely boring. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/34 "2005-11-06T17:23:06Z")
Robert Heinlein’s \*\*Friday \*\* which was publish in 1982 and included the internet and surfing it for knowledge. He extrapolated the Internet from ArpaNet. Jim ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/35 "2005-11-06T17:53:39Z")
In the book of **2001: A Space Oddessy** , during the flight to the moon, Dr. floyd using something like a PDA to access the latest headlines on newspapers from around the world. Sounds a bit like the internet for me. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/36 "2005-11-06T20:44:28Z")
> [@MessyPaint](#): > > i guess _hackers_ is kind of an obvious one… That movie was so stunningly accurate that it was practically a documentary, too. ---
**Author:** ![MackoUr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MackoUr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MackoUr)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/37 "2005-11-06T21:07:43Z")
There was a book I read decades ago called _Medusa_ where the plot revolved around a government computer network that the bad guys hacked to change the information the president was recieving. The only scene that sticks out in memory is the good guy going to a telephone booth with his briefcase-sized computer to dial into the network. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/38 "2005-11-06T21:54:13Z")
Although 1992 isn’t really that early, Stephenson’s **Snow Crash** anticipated the use of personal avatars as internet personae, as well as the merger of GPS-type technology with something akin to a real-time version of Google Earth. We’re not far off from his vision, although he also thought that the US would have been Balkanized by now, and that the Mafia would control pizza delivery. 🙂 A very fun read. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/39 "2005-11-06T22:00:25Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > This reminds me of a movie from the 80s that involved this guy & gal who broke into a banking computer network on some kind of get-rich scheme (creating dozens of ATM cards so they could extract large amounts with impunity), and somehow their actions trigger a much larger financial run that brings the country’s economy to the brink of collapse. Some computer stuff was in it, but mostly I remember the scene where the guy’s using tons of ATM cards (with a policeman waiting behind him in line, none the wiser), and the girl had medium long dark hair and was really cute. No name actors to my recollection. > > Anyone have any ideas? I can’t believe you mentioned this. It was one of those movies that HBO showed relentlessly. It was called **Prime Risk**. I thought that girl was super hot at the time. [Prime Risk](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087942/) ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646/40 "2005-11-06T23:11:15Z")
Then there’s the classic dystopian drama known as **Max Headroom** , both the movie (made for TV movie?) and the TV series takes place in a bleak future? check, specifically **twenty minutes** into the future faceless evil megacorporations? check (the warring Networks, Zik-Zak, Security Systems…) networked computers? check, the basic 'net that allows Max to get around the A-7 Mainframe that Max falls in love with media controlled citizens? check, TV addiction is rampant, the most important commodity in the M.H. universe are “ratings\*\*” and credibility, off-switches on TV’s are illegal, constant monitoring of the citizens, “Blipvert” mind-control advertising and “Neurostim” bracelets causing an uncontrollable urge to [Amy Wong] buy name brand merchandise at low, low prices…\[/A.W.], Blipverts cause the more…sedentary consumers to explode (corporate “population control”, perhaps?) “Rebels” fighting the system? check, “Blanks” people who live “off the grid” and have no identity within “the system”, many of them working to tear down said system, people within the system doing what they can to subvert it (Edison Carter, Bryce, Max, Theora) \*\*ironically, Max Headroom was cancelled due to “low ratings”, i think it’s satirical, cynical outlook on the future and corporate “ethics” hit too close to home for some network suits… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-uses-of-the-internet-as-plot-point/329646.md?page=3)