Nerdsnipe time.
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Nerdsnipe time.
What was the first work of fiction to feature the World Wide Web?
I don't mean some 1950's sci-fi with pan-Earth info system. I mean a story with a character literally visiting "www. something" on a computer.
Any ideas?
@Edent Feels like something I'd get the QI buzzer for, but 'The Net', July '95? Ordering a pizza from (a basic looking) pizza.net ? Jonny Mnemonic was months earlier, but was more cyberpunk, I can't remember it having actual internet as we know it.
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@distrowatch @Edent I think that Sneakers pre dated both, but I cannot remember it featuring the web.
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Nerdsnipe time.
What was the first work of fiction to feature the World Wide Web?
I don't mean some 1950's sci-fi with pan-Earth info system. I mean a story with a character literally visiting "www. something" on a computer.
Any ideas?
@Edent pretty sure Jurassic park, the novel, mentioned something along those lines. 1990?
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Nerdsnipe time.
What was the first work of fiction to feature the World Wide Web?
I don't mean some 1950's sci-fi with pan-Earth info system. I mean a story with a character literally visiting "www. something" on a computer.
Any ideas?
@Edent maybe not exactly if i remember correctly but the animation reboot gets close
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@Edent Feels like something I'd get the QI buzzer for, but 'The Net', July '95? Ordering a pizza from (a basic looking) pizza.net ? Jonny Mnemonic was months earlier, but was more cyberpunk, I can't remember it having actual internet as we know it.
@LucPestille @Edent
I remember watching her order a pizza online and thinking how unlikely to ever happen in the UK it was. Little did I know! -
Nerdsnipe time.
What was the first work of fiction to feature the World Wide Web?
I don't mean some 1950's sci-fi with pan-Earth info system. I mean a story with a character literally visiting "www. something" on a computer.
Any ideas?
I was going to nominate Clifford Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg, but it isn't fiction and predates the web by a couple of years. It did inspire the Hackers movie, though.
@Edent -
@Edent I hate myself for saying this as I abhor everything about LLMs, but this is exactly the sort of question they (or at least the infrastructure which supports them) would be good for. Except LLMs are not nerds...
@khleedril @Edent I used to use them to try to identify books people couldn't remember the names of, and they'd almost always give me results like: "[real book title] [fake description of its contents]"
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@Edent pretty sure Jurassic park, the novel, mentioned something along those lines. 1990?
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Nerdsnipe time.
What was the first work of fiction to feature the World Wide Web?
I don't mean some 1950's sci-fi with pan-Earth info system. I mean a story with a character literally visiting "www. something" on a computer.
Any ideas?
@Edent More essay than plot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_We_May_Think -
@Edent More essay than plot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_We_May_Think
@logvoid all the information is on the task.
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@logvoid all the information is on the task.
@Edent I have only skimmed secondary info about memex and "As We May Think", but I should go back and sit down to read it. Seems like the kind of material that inspires reflection and writing upon serious contact. -
@Edent I have only skimmed secondary info about memex and "As We May Think", but I should go back and sit down to read it. Seems like the kind of material that inspires reflection and writing upon serious contact.
@logvoid please read my original post.
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@logvoid please read my original post.
@Edent Oh; I knew my reply was partially offtarget since it is not a narrative story, but does the memex fit the description: 'I don't mean some 1950's sci-fi with pan-Earth info system.'? If so, I missed that connection and should have not replied with the link I did. -
@relache
I think the 1984 Stephenson story was maybe not the first. I read an earlier booklast month that had computer viruses."*When HARLIE Was One* is also the novel that introduced the concept of the computer virus to popular thought. For that I am profoundly sorry."
From David Gerrold's intro to his 2014 rewrite of the HARLIE book. The 1972 version was definitely using virus to refer to computer code ruining and stealing data. I suspect there might be earlier references.
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@relache
I think the 1984 Stephenson story was maybe not the first. I read an earlier booklast month that had computer viruses."*When HARLIE Was One* is also the novel that introduced the concept of the computer virus to popular thought. For that I am profoundly sorry."
From David Gerrold's intro to his 2014 rewrite of the HARLIE book. The 1972 version was definitely using virus to refer to computer code ruining and stealing data. I suspect there might be earlier references.
@relache
I do wonder if Stephenson's *Snow Crash* might have managed to pull this off. It would be REALLY early for the web, though. Like, a bit pre-public-Mosaic, but maybe... I don't have a copy handy to look at.I fear that Microserfs might mention websites, too, but that's 1995 I think.
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@simoncox.com www was officially announced in 91. Though Snow Crash was probably inspired more by earlier Internet. Metaverse was definitely not www.
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@khleedril @Edent I used to use them to try to identify books people couldn't remember the names of, and they'd almost always give me results like: "[real book title] [fake description of its contents]"
@skysailor @khleedril @Edent And they're often confidently wrong. Try using them on areas where you have deep knowledge but phrasing questions like someone who doesn't.
They are satisficing machines (intended to give a satisfyingly plausible answer) not reference librarians who will give as accurate an answer as resources currently provide (and who will be honest about uncertainty). -
@Edent the first one I remember reading was the one about sysadmins after the end of the world by Corey Doctorow, but that can’t be the first.
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Nerdsnipe time.
What was the first work of fiction to feature the World Wide Web?
I don't mean some 1950's sci-fi with pan-Earth info system. I mean a story with a character literally visiting "www. something" on a computer.
Any ideas?
@Edent I'm interested in the answer to your question but want to call out the 1909(!!) EM Forster short story, The Machine Stops, as being shockingly prescient about a world wide information network and the impact it has on life.
A must read.
