
Ask YC: How would you describe the Internet to someone who has ZERO computer knowledge? - lbrdn
A similar question was asked in a recent Viget post and I thought it would be interesting to discuss.
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dkokelley
Please elaborate on "zero computer knowledge." Is this someone from the past
who doesn't even know about electricity, or just a typical person today who
knows computers, but has no knowledge of the "magic" under the hood?

I'll assume the second.

Explain that the internet is just a collection of computers that are connected
to each other. Some computers are always on and hold websites (servers) so
that other computers (say, typical PCs) can connect to them to see the
websites.

Now there are some computers that have the job of acting as the phone book so
that the other computers know where to find the servers.

I like this exercise. It forces yourself to explain a system in the most
simple terms possible.

~~~
lbrdn
The definition shouldn't assume the reader has any technical knowledge (think
tribal medicine man, or most people's grandmother)

~~~
dkokelley
Thanks, but the difference between tribal medicine man and typical grandmother
still leaves room for confusion. A typical grandmother knows that computers
exist, but a tribal medicine man might spear me for stealing his soul with
this mysterious "light box."

The reason I ask is because I wanted to know if I was supposed to explain the
computer to this person or just how it interacts with the internet.

Maybe the question could be "explain the internet to someone from 30 years
ago. (Computers present, but no complete internet to speak of)"

~~~
lbrdn
You're right, I guess more grandmother than medicine man.

Another quick question, is knowing what a computer is necessary for someone to
understand the internet?

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dkokelley
I suppose you could explain it in abstract terms without knowledge of a
computer (ex. the internet is a wonderful place where people can connect from
all around the world in the blink of an eye), but that wouldn't really convey
the nature of it.

The question is also open to further interpretation: Is it, what the internet
is, what it can do, how it works, what it means to society, or something else?
There are many ways to "explain the internet" to someone with no knowledge of
computers, but to explain how it is, or how it works, they must understand
what a computer is.

~~~
lbrdn
As you stated above, the Shoghi Effendi quote is close and he doesn't mention
computers. I think the definition doesn't explain how, just what and would get
bonus points for why.

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k0mplex
I'd call it "a mechanism of world intercommunication embracing the whole
planet, freed from national hindrances and restrictions, and functioning with
marvelous swiftness and perfect regularity."

This was written by Shoghi Effendi in 1936 predicting the technology of a
future world commonwealth.

~~~
dkokelley
Frighteningly close, but we're not quite there yet. The _"freed from national
hindrances and restrictions, and functioning with marvelous swiftness and
perfect regularity"_ part is still lacking (consider recent stories about
governments monitoring and censoring the internet, and massive outages from
damaged cables).

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staunch
If you really mean zero computer knowledge that's pretty tough challenge. I'd
probably have to try a few times until I could develop a pitch that seemed to
work. The "curse of knowledge" means I don't think I could imagine what it'd
take to get across the concepts to someone. I'd love to try.

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bprater
The Internet is like being able to sit down at your desk and being able to
read any book in any library anywhere on earth, instantly.

~~~
dcurtis
A lot of people in the 90's used to describe the internet this way, but I
think it has sort of evolved beyond just a library of knowledge.

What about the availability of instant, practically free communication?

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hooande
"Porn and free music."

They may not understand it, but they'll want to check it out.

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stevecooperorg
I think you _don't_ need to be objective -- you just need to whip up enough
enthusiasm to get the person over their fear of the evil compuwebs and trying
it out. After that, they'll learn themselves. I had this with my mum, who is
now happy googling away, buying things from amazon, and watching youtube.

Start small, with the benefits of one or two sites. Find a site that offers a
batch of benefits together -- say, google, google mail, google video, google
maps, and google shopping -- and tell them that this is 'home.' In fact, you
could just tell them that Google is the internet, teach them to compose a
search, and be done with it. People take to the web very naturally once they
try it.

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henning
The Internet is a global communications network which is accessed by viewing
electronic documents called "pages" which contain certain highlighted parts
called "links" that when accessed will lead you to other pages. A small on-
screen arrow called a "cursor" can be moved around the page you are currently
viewing with a navigation device called a mouse and this is used to browse and
navigate documents. People use the Internet for things like news, commerce,
entertainment, pornography, copyright infringement, and watching videos of
lesbians eating each other's shit out of a cup like an icecream cone.

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rokhayakebe
the internet is a ginormous trailer park. it is open to anyone without limits.
some people park their trailer for no particular reason. some bring their
lunch wagon to sell food. some have a movie wagon. lots of wagon do not charge
the residents for their service, they just love to have a lot of people around
their wagon and figure a way to make money from them later. you can live the
park anytime you want. you live there for life for a mere 5.99/month...
....and so on....

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prepositionjoe
I explained the _Web_ , not the Internet, to a relative with zero computer
knowledge as follows:

* think about magazines and how they're made

* you have to put all the text and pictures together, then you have to print them in a huge printing plant, load them onto a thousand trucks and take them around the country

* it's slow, it's very expensive, and you might end up with millions of magazines that nobody wants, and have to throw them away

Now, imagine someone though of a better way.

Instead of you having to print the magazine on paper and take them to people,
you let people's computers come to the magazine's offices and take a copy of
the magazine. Then they read the magazine on the computer.

They seemed to take it well.

As far as explaining how the internet works, I've always said "you don't need
to", any more than you need to explain how the phone systems works.

But how the phone system works is instructive. There are all the different
countries around the world, using different languages, different equipment,
different voltages for their power, but somehow, we got them all to agree on
some things, so you can just pick up a phone, anywhere in the world, and dial
another phone anywhere else in the world.

That's how the internet "works". Everyone has agreed on the right way for
computers to talk to each other. The details are meaningless.

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ptn
The Internet is a tool that shrinks the world: it lets you communicate with
whoever you want no matter where they are, read any document wherever it is
and whatever the format (book, txt, html), manage every aspect of your
personal life (everything from editing photos to tracking your duties with
something like Google Calendar) from one single computer and even have fun
with on-line games.

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notauser
Just tell them it's like a highway, for information, oh yes...

<http://www.acme.com/jef/netgems/superhighway.html>

"...A highway HUNDREDS of lanes wide. Most with potholes. Privately operated
bridges and overpasses. No highway patrol. A couple of rent-a-cops on bicycles
with broken whistles. 500 member VIGILANTE POSSES with nuclear weapons. 237 ON
RAMPS at every intersection. NO SIGNS. Wanna get to Ensenada? Holler out the
window at a passing truck to ask directions. AD HOC traffic laws. Some lanes
would VOTE to make use by a single-occupant-vehicle a CAPITAL OFFENSE on
Monday through Friday between 7:00 and 9:00. Other lanes would just SHOOT you
without a trial for talking on a car phone..."

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bubaker
A computer is basically something that helps me think outside of my head, like
pen and paper or a chalkboard or camera and printer. The difference is that a
computer helps me write, draw, and design things, and play around (with
abstractions like words, numbers, diagrams, pictures, audio, video) in often
easier and unique ways.

The internet is a way for me to do these types of things on a computer with
other people, observing and interacting with their abstractions and letting
them do the same with mine. Often, this creates an opportunity to make $$
because maybe I or others have or can come up with information and other stuff
that is valuable or desirable to someone. It also provides ways of finding out
about what people in general are thinking, doing, making, and wanting.

Of course, many forms of media also function similarly, but often more slowly
and with less integrated ways of communicating. Take YouTube, which combines
ad-driven and searchable video with discussion and polling in relative "real-
time". Without the internet, a broadcast TV network might air a program which
allow viewers to call-in to discuss and rate various aspects of the show.
However, many aspects are not only different, but asymmetrically so. Here are
some of these aspects:

\- YouTube viewers register their contributions themselves - little or no
effort by the "network" and certainly not the producer/provider \- even if the
network had someone transcribe the discussion, it would not be available soon
or cheaply \- ads (which drive so much of the web and so the internet for
many) are simultaneous, usually unobtrusive, targeted, and often interactive
as well \- the act of viewing/interacting on YouTube itself is a contribution
(via logging/cookies) which in aggregate and dynamically drives further
content/discussion \- eventually the network company can focus on advertising
and let viewers budget for content :-)

Much of the above applies in large part to organizational use of computer and
internet as well, though philosophies of management, security, IP, etc can
determine whether the technology is a boon or dongle. Then again, the same
could be said for how I or anyone else tries to make use of the technology...

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ArcticCelt
It's like if everybody has a TV and a mini TV studio in their home. The number
of channels are nearly illimited. Main difference is that huge part of the
content is text.

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jfoutz
I'd start with a dictionary. A good dictionary has pictures and historical
figures, almost encyclopedic. Then, add video. It's easy to imagine moving
pictures in a book. Maybe add sound as well.

Next comes news. The book, somehow, can provide the daily news. It's pretty
easy to imaigne daily updates to the book.

Once they see that the book can get the news, it's not to hard to extend the
communication to other books. so, you could write in one book, and read the
words in another.

I'd say that's about it.

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DocSavage
Imagine big telephones that could transmit written words, images, audio, and
even video. That thing over there, yeah the one with the keyboard and screen,
that's the advanced telephone we call a "computer." Instead of dialing someone
with numbers, you dial with letters. And we call the big telephone network the
"internet."

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mhartl
The Internet is a series of tubes.

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mechanical_fish
Show, don't tell.

Or, as Louis Armstrong once said, "If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll
never know."

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yearsinrock
Virtually everything is free of cost

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maxwell
Telepathic magic mirrors.

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schaaf
Suppose there is no electricity. Suppose you're a tyrant ruling over a massive
empire that spans a continent or two. For military and economic reasons, you
need an official communication system, but the obvious method of having
someone physically carry the messages sucks. It's slow. It's terrain-
dependent. And your messengers can be captured or eaten by wolves.

Suppose you have really good telescopes, and can construct watchtowers that
are tall and easy to defend. With two watchtowers 10 miles apart, a sergeant
in one tower can wave a red flag or a blue flag, which the other tower can see
with its telescope. With some convention like Morse code, you can relay
information between the two watchtowers.

Suppose now that you build a massive network of these towers. You want to
enable communication from any tower to any other tower. Clearly this is
possible, but there are issues. How do the towers agree to relay messages? How
do they deal with congestion? How do they recover from small errors?

So you assemble your finest engineers, give them a large military grant, and
they develop some common conventions (protocols) for the tower operators to
adopt. They develop Imperial Protocol (IP), a system that gives each tower a
unique address and lets any tower try to send a small message packet (a few
sentences) to any other tower. But IP does not ensure that the message will
get through.

With IP in place, they then develop Tower Channel Protocol (TCP), which
operates on top of IP and ensures reliability. Basically, the source tower and
the destination tower strike up a metaconversation, notifying each other about
how many words they've received so far, and resending IP packets that got lost
in transmision. TCP offers a reliable point to point communication line.

With TCP in place, they develop Hannibalesque Tome Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
When a general wants to send a large report, the tower operators first send
some headers (like the headers on a fax) describing the document that is about
to be sent and mentioning how many words long it is, then the words
themselves. This is all done over a TCP connection.

When a general in province 7 wants to get the report
<http://province13.empire.mil/report/OPERATIONAJAX.pdf>, the tower operators
find the tower named "province13.empire.mil" and send it an HTTP request
asking for the document named "report/OPERATIONAJAX.pdf". That tower gets this
request, and sends back the report as its response.

So HTTP is built on top of TCP which is built on top of IP which is built on
top of red and blue flags.

Replace Tower Channel Protocol by Transmission Control Protocol and Imperial
Protocol by Internet Protocol, flags by cables, and towers by computers, and
you have the internet. Replace Hannibalesque Tome Transfer Protocol by
Hypertext Transfer Protocol, and you have the web.

Note: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaphore_line> Note: Are we actually
seeing a practical application of the Slashdotesque "TCP/IP over ____*!!"
meme?

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LPTS
I'd say "Mr. Senator, congratulations on getting seated as chairman of the
science, technology, and transportation committee. Before you start making
laws, maybe I should teach you a couple things..." and then after an agonizing
few minutes, I'd say "Forget all that...you know how the pipes in your toilet
work..."

~~~
noonespecial
_"Forget all that...you know how the pipes in your toilet work..."_

The sad part is, you would likely also get a blank stare to this as well.
There are people who float through life with nearly NO understanding of any of
the things that make their lives possible. Some even consider this something
to take pride in.

