What Would Most Surprise A Visitor from 1991?

[Queequeg]

Listening to Pixie's Bossanova. Started wondering if Black Francis and friends ever thought I would be listening to it on something like an iPod, or if an educated observer would be more surprised by the fact that I can use the internet on my phone or that parts of it were made in China.

What are the most surprising trends, developnents and events of the post cold-war world? Especially interested in people who were adults back then.

[MadImmortalMan]

They'd be shocked it took us 15 years to get rid of Saddam.

[Monoriu]

That the internet changes everything. 

[Tonitrus]

That Colin Powell wasn't the first black President.

[Martinus]

That the internet changes everything.

This. Both in terms of contents and the technological advances which make it essentially available everywhere at all times on portable devices. This is the single most important technological development of the last century.

[Alcibiades]

9/11

[Slargos]

That the internet changes everything.

This. Both in terms of contents and the technological advances which make it essentially available everywhere at all times on portable devices. This is the single most important technological development of the last century.

[Martinus]

That the internet changes everything.

This. Both in terms of contents and the technological advances which make it essentially available everywhere at all times on portable devices. This is the single most important technological development of the last century.

It may be funny to you and it is the natural thought to consider stuff like cars or planes instead (although cars are, arguably, a 19th century invention) but I still maintain that internet is more important. Cars, planes, phones, tvs etc. allowed us to breach distances but still maintained barriers between communities - they could all be reglamented, controlled, and the access to them was expensive and sporadic.

Internet changed all of this. The fact that we can have this community here (dysfunctional it may be) would be impossible without the internet - we would not get to know each other in the first place if we just had cars, planes, phones and tvs - we would still make friends, meet new people etc. within our physical environments (yes, we could then keep in touch with them through phones etc. but that's not the point).

[Slargos]

No, I was thinking more along the lines of nuclear physics or penicillin, and while Internets is certainly up there I wouldn't so casually call it the single most important.

[The Brain]

The internet-for-the-masses is clearly the big thing that's happened since 91. Ordinary people didn't think about the internet in 91.

9/11 and how freedom of speech is under siege in Europe is another thing that may be more surprising to a visitor from 91. I know I didn't expect religious terrorists shutting down freedom of speech in Sweden.

[Martinus]

The internet-for-the-masses is clearly the big thing that's happened since 91. Ordinary people didn't think about the internet in 91.

9/11 and how freedom of speech is under siege in Europe is another thing that may be more surprising to a visitor from 91. I know I didn't expect religious terrorists shutting down freedom of speech in Sweden.

I am not sure if you are joking or not, but freedom of speech has never been a big thing in Europe. And before the internet, it was largely illusory, since access to mass communication was heavily reglamented. Freedom of speech came under siege when science gave each voter the means to make his voice heard - and then we found out that most people are idiots.

Before the internet, a nutso writing a letter to a paper or trying to get on tv or the radio or have his "manifesto" published would simply be ignored - and would be convinced noone else sees the world the way he does.

Now, he just puts his crap on the internet, and finds immediate validation in hundreds or thousands of other nutsos who agree with him.

[The Brain]

The internet-for-the-masses is clearly the big thing that's happened since 91. Ordinary people didn't think about the internet in 91.

9/11 and how freedom of speech is under siege in Europe is another thing that may be more surprising to a visitor from 91. I know I didn't expect religious terrorists shutting down freedom of speech in Sweden.

I am not sure if you are joking or not, but freedom of speech has never been a big thing in Europe. And before the internet, it was largely illusory, since access to mass communication was heavily reglamented. Freedom of speech came under siege when science gave each voter the means to make his voice heard - and then we found out that most people are idiots.

You were sucking your profiteer mother's tits behind the iron curtain in the 80s so I don't blame you for being ignorant. The idea that we in Sweden would be thrown back to the mustn't-criticize-certain-religions era was considered ridiculous. And that the terrorists would enjoy so much popular support of the "he shouldn't have made the innocent cartoon, people get upset so trying to kill him is excusable" variety wasn't exactly obvious.

[dps]

That the internet changes everything.

This. Both in terms of contents and the technological advances which make it essentially available everywhere at all times on portable devices. This is the single most important technological development of the last century.

It may be funny to you and it is the natural thought to consider stuff like cars or planes instead (although cars are, arguably, a 19th century invention) but I still maintain that internet is more important. Cars, planes, phones, tvs etc. allowed us to breach distances but still maintained barriers between communities - they could all be reglamented, controlled, and the access to them was expensive and sporadic.

Internet changed all of this. The fact that we can have this community here (dysfunctional it may be) would be impossible without the internet - we would not get to know each other in the first place if we just had cars, planes, phones and tvs - we would still make friends, meet new people etc. within our physical environments (yes, we could then keep in touch with them through phones etc. but that's not the point).

That's actually a pretty good argument.  I'm not sure that I agree wtih it, but it's a good argument.

And while I might not agree that the internet is the most important technological development of the past century, I would definately agree that widespread use of the internet would be the thing about the present that would most surprise a visitor from 1991.

[Zanza]

To answer the original question, I would concur regarding the internet. It was just a toy for geeks and scientists back in 1991 and has reached billions nowadays. Mobile phones are another piece of technology that only really took off after 1991.

As far as the most important invention of the century is concerned, I would only consider the internet an application of integrated circuits, which are even more pervasive in our daily lives (although usually invisible) than the internet.

[Tamas]

Well regarding the freedom of speech argument - Monthy Python, especially Life of Brian

Today that movie would never see the light of day.