So you beat five people?

Also, the world couldn't survive without the internet.

As a collective species this takes us one step BACKWARDS from exploring space and having the necessary infastructure to govern and lead large masses of people. I do not support at all. I could live with out in on a personal level, but something would die inside me on a grander level and scope. Others might not handle it so well, could be withdrawl symptoms for awhile.

Card indexes at the library...
Resume hermit mode.

The library is limited by meatspace. It can only store so much, it can take weeks to months depending on how obscure of a book your looking for. It's not always guranteed availability. There are so many limitations a library has over the internet. It's not a valid comparison at all. More so if you put in th emoney to sign up for some scientific journals. THen you can get the source right at your finger tips. I'm not even sure if you can do this with the Library, getting way back in these publishers archives to see what they've published would be much harder without the internet.

There are some drawbacks to the inernet, but they are so minor as to be personal opinions really.

To be honest it would at first. I like having the internet because it is today's way of finding out what is going on in the world at a click of a button. I don't have to sit and listen to annoying news casters on television. If I want the same stories, I can look them up on the internet.

But then if the internet went down and I was stuck without it for awhile, I think I would adapt. But hey! That would mean no more online multi-player games.... hmm....

People say this about every subsequent generation - they're more violent, they aren't as smart as we were, they have no work ethic / morals, and so on. "Those lazy kids with their new-fangled slide rules / abacuses."

Could people survive without the internet - of course. But everything would more time consuming and inefficient.

Take your library as an example. In law school we were required to learn how to use the law library's antiquated card catalogue and various directories to do our first research paper. It took hours and hours and hours to find the right books and cross check cite references (ever had to spool through microfiche for something that's no longer in print? Didn't think so.). For every subsequent paper, we used internet databases. The internet provided more relevant information and was updated constantly so nothing was out of date. Our papers were better too, since our eyes didn't glaze over from having to skim 5,000 typed pages. Without the internet, things would be slower, less exact, and more expensive.

My attitude isn't that we should become cave men, but I feel there's such an over reliance on the internet for the simplest of things these days. Plus, my main issue with the internet is that it strongly helps in the art of identity theft and taking people's personal information. For me, stealing innocent people's information and how many become victims each day is disgusting, then again, if the internet were lest, they'd just find another way around it. Where there's a will there's a way. I'm more mixed in mind, but something tells me deep down that something similiar should happen. I will agree with one poster (Forgot who it was, dont wanna scroll up before I lose my train of thought), the internet has help me grow a lot as a person, for good or ill.

Cancer. It keeps growing until it's terminal.

That, or the Roman Empire, or the Third Reich, or Civil Rights.

Life without internet? Hmm. Let's just say that I'd have pretty much nothing to do.

I don't think I'd like it if the internet was down and stayed down---I do alot of socalizing online (Ok I guess I can to a local club, but then I'd waste money and I have to hear ungodly loud music that I hate) and I watch YouTube alot----you can't take YouTube away from me, it's all I watch now-a-days .

And humanity. We have already, many years ago, overpopulated the planet.

Some things need to be regulated, technology being one of them.

Agreed. World Population hit 7 billion last October. It hit 6 billion 12 years ago...

Yeah, but as far as the internet goes, I like it. Since it's there, it means I have a choice, to use it or to not use it. Even in this day and age, having a choice can be a luxury.

Sounds like a parenting problem, not a technology issue there.

I am 25 (almost 26) and I am married.
Do you know what math skills beyond add and subtract and other very basic functions I use on a daily basis?
None.
Everything I need to do is either X + Y =6 or X * Y =36.
Most of the skills I learned in school either,
1) Turned out to be useless to me, examples would be. geometry and exponents. I helped build my house with simple drawings and a tape measure.
I have built many things with some wood and nails/screws and never had anything more than a Idea and a tape measure. I don't even remember how to add fractions like 9/16 and 1/4, but I know how to draw out what I want and I can turn that into something with a bit of effort.
2) I learned them else where, and learned them better.

What if that child was right are you are wrong? The internet is a powerful tool.

I don't have to go anywhere to learn, its at my fingertips.

a few years ago I went 9 months without a computer & by extension no internet as well so it is doable. while the net is nice I do think we have been conditioned to be too dependent on it's existence.

A year ago I went 17 years without a car, while cars are nice I think we have been conditioned to be too dependent on their existence.

Thank the nine I don't use public transportation.

You mean the eight? Because I'm pretty sure there are only eight...

Slowing things down=longer life. 70 years of a slow life is longer than 85 years of non stop action. BEsides, telephones! They exist you know....

Obviously it's not an impossibility to not use internet, but that argument can be said for anything that has as much use as something like the internet. Automobiles, as Capital used as an example, are another thing that provide nearly infinite use and while not mandatory, add so many dimensions and capabilities to our lives that we couldn't otherwise have without one. Doesn't even have to be a personal car, pretty much any transportation that runs on fuel is the same way. Housing could be another example. Living without a permanent, fixed-to-the-ground house is possible, but having a permanent house that's stable provides its owners or users with a multitude of benefits that really have no major downsides.

Society would basically regress, methinks.

And by regress you mean, gain initiative and remove the "MUST HAVE INFORMATION/MATERIAL ITEM/six TOY NOW!" mentality, yes?

All the internet has done is speed things up, methinks we need to slow down. We are driving at full speed towards our destruction. Typically, the more an organism's heart beats per minute, the shorter a life it has.

It would take some getting used to, but I think I'd be ok. The word got along just fine before 1990...I don't see why it couldn't after the end of the Internet.

The worst part would be everybody's withdrawal. People could be moaning and complaining...if there was none of that, I think it would be fine.

I didn't know the pursuit of rapid information was to be abhorred. I thought an indication of a (relatively) successful society would be the quick and rapid exchange of information, thoughts, and ideas on a large (global) scale.

Back when people didn't have access to rapid exchange in information, the vast, and I mean VAST majority of people who were living on this planet, let's say before the year 1875 for whatever reason, were, to put it quite bluntly, stupid as all hell. I'd say our younger generations are now more intelligent than 99% of the population before that, whether they were intelligent for their time or otherwise. I do not see that as a bad thing.

As far as progressing too quickly, we aren't on an infinite schedule here. Fossil fuels are running out, which means unless massive changes in infrastructure are implemented within the next century, our rapid exchange of information and technological advancement will slow down or even cease. I for one don't quite look forward to the prospect of living as savage natives for the rest of humanity's existence. I would rather see us take to the stars with the help of cheap, renewable, and more efficient energy sources. This won't happen without the free and rapid exchange of information we are granted with the power of the internet.