Smart People Thinking Smart Things

A Nobel Prize-winning historian with, apparently, not enough to think about, thinks that if there had been an Internet in the 1930s Adolph Hitler would not have risen to power and history would be really, really different.

"Who knows, if the Internet had existed at the time, perhaps Hitler's criminal plot would not have succeeded - ridicule might have prevented it from ever seeing the light of day," he said.

Yes, certainly: jokes about his mustache and Photoshops of him with only one testicle would have ended his career long before he became all powerful. My how the world would be different!

While I'm no Nobel Prize winner, I've been thinking it over and have begun to make a list of things in history that would be different if there had been an internet. And you, know there are lots of things! For example:

1. The invention of the telegraph. The telegraph was the first means of communicating instantly over long distances, which revolutionized almost all aspects of life. Had there been an Internet, the telegraph would never have been invented because people would already have email. Why would they care about the telegraph?
2. The horror of Jack the Ripper, because Jack would have been home, downloading porn, instead of out cutting up prostitutes.
3. Columbus's discovery of the New World, because when Columbus suggested a shorter route to China, Isabella would have checked Google maps and noted that the Americas are in the way. She would have concluded that Columbus was too much of a dope to lead an expedition anywhere.

Wow! History would really have been different! And thinking about it makes me really appreciate Nobel Prize-winning...uh, Nobel Prize winners! They must be really smart!

Comments

[Frank]

Hey now, the right reverend Al Gore of the church of the holy planet is in that group you're making fun of, and we know he's not one for being ridiculed.