WEBVTT

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(phone ringing)

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<v ->Oh, God.</v>

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<v ->I'm Louise Matsakis and I'm a staff writer for WIRED.</v>

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Hey Siri, what's the weather today?

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(phone beeps)

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You know how people say millennials are glued

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to their phones and too busy staring at their screens

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to look where they're going?

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I'll be there soon, sorry I'm running a little late.

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Yeah, I'm totally not one of those.

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<v ->What's up Louise?</v>

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<v ->Hey what's up?</v>

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<v ->I have an assignment for you.</v>

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As you know, it's WIRED's 25th anniversary.

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We've been around since 1993.

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So I would like you to write a story

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about what it was like to be connected

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on the Internet in 1993.

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<v ->Okay, yeah, no problem.</v>

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I'm on it.

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<v ->Ah, but there's a catch.</v>

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You have to do it like it was 1993.

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<v ->Uh, how?</v>

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<v ->You're not allowed to use your phone.</v>

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You're not allowed to use your laptop.

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I have some old 1993 tech that I'm gonna give you.

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<v ->Okay.</v>

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<v ->Starting with, a pen.</v>

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<v ->Okay, I know what this is.</v>

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I've used one of these before.

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(they laugh)

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<v ->A notepad.</v>

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<v ->Okay.</v>

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<v ->Here's a map.</v>

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Here's a camera.

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<v ->What if the shots aren't very good?</v>

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<v ->Well, then, ah, you're fired.</v>

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Here's a pager.

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That's so I can get in touch with you,

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find out how you're doing and to yell at you

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for filing copy late

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and finally here is a watch.

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You're gonna need it,

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because I'm gonna need your file copy at 3:30.

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<v ->Ah, all right, I'll do the best I can.</v>

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<v ->You're not gonna have this stuff,</v>

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so, good luck.

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<v ->Oh, God!</v>

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So here's the thing, I'm one year younger than WIRED itself.

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For the most part, I've never used a map

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unless it was on my phone.

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The easiest way across town seemed to be the bus.

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I don't know how to pay for it though.

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<v Patrick Farrell>Do you have cash?</v>

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<v ->Yeah, I have cash.</v>

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I hopped on a bus and with all the traffic

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and transfers, it was taking longer than I had hoped.

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<v ->Okay, I think we're running late.</v>

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At least, according to this watch.

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Who knows if it's right?

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So, I think I'm just gonna get an Uber.

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<v ->No Ubers.</v>

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<v ->Uh, what about a Lyft?</v>

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<v ->No, not in 1993.</v>

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<v Louise>What about one of those other</v>

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ridesharing startups?

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Isn't there something that we can do?

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<v ->Yeah, they're called taxi cabs.</v>

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<v ->But, this isn't New York.</v>

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Cabs don't stop very often here in San Francisco.

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I'm worried about now I really wishing

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I could type my address into a smartphone.

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Finally, a cab stopped.

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So, this is where I would probably be

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looking at my phone.

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I can say that I feel significantly less car sick

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probably because I'm actually watching the buildings

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go by as opposed to scrolling up my screen.

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Yeah, it's boring but pleasant.

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<v Kevin>Whatcha doing, Louise?</v>

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<v ->Looking for cash.</v>

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Here you go, sir.

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<v ->I think it is in here.</v>

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Okay, so I have to admit without my phone

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I was a bit lost at first but I came to the

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right place.

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The Internet Archive.

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<v ->So, let's dial time back to 1993.</v>

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<v ->I met up with Brewster Kale.</v>

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The founder of the Internet Archive

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to learn more about the early days of the Web

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which his organization has been preserving page by page.

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<v ->In the World Wide Web from 1997, would fit in about</v>

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this much of one of these.

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That's it.

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<v ->He also does a pretty good impression of a modem</v>

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from 25 years ago.

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<v ->So, you had your modem at home, beep, beep, beep</v>

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and you would dial in to somebody's server

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and they would have a little system

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and only the people that went into those,

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would be able to communicate.

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<v ->In 1993, the World Wide Web launched.</v>

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A year later, WIRED got online as Hotwired.

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Cute, right?

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Kale showed me an archived page from 1997.

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<v ->It looks like a crappy old web page which</v>

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it was but it was awesome then, right?

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It was worked over modems, it was fast

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because there wasn't a lot of graphics.

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<v ->No pictures, huh?</v>

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There's no pictures.

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There's a logo but that's about it.

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Oh, there's an ad.

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These junky ads for getting an Intel Pentium 2.

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Woo hoo!

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<v ->The Internet looks primordial then</v>

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but, nearly 20 million Americans were online.

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A few, Kale told me, were already thinking

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about some of the Internet issues that we deal with today.

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Right now, there's this kind of concern that

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the Internet or at least, some of these Internet

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companies like Facebook and Google were ever

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going to regulated by the government.

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Was there a concern in the early '90s that

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anyone could publish this and the government

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is going to come in?

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<v ->We basically have lost a lot of the win of the Web</v>

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which was, in some sense, a decentralized system that

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anybody could go and join into but now, we've got

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a few of these big players.

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We've been in an environment of radical sharing experiment.

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<v ->Totally, yeah.</v>

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<v ->Which has been what the Internet and the World Wide Web</v>

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has been and now, we need to follow through to

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really make sure that it's a good system to bring

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up and run it.

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Country, the world, culture.

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That actually works better than

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what's going on at the moment.

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[Louise] - I did learn a lot from Brewster

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but, now, I need to do some more research.

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Usually, I just take out my phone and my laptop

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and use Google to look up some stuff

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but I can't do that, so where am I supposed to go?

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[Kevin] - Go to the library.

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<v ->Hey, I'm Louise.</v>

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<v ->Hi Louise, I'm Mark.</v>

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<v ->I met up with a librarian named Mark</v>

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who showed me where the library keeps the bodies,

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I mean, the old research tools.

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<v ->We're in Brooks Hall.</v>

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We're in basically the city's basement where

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the library has been using some of the space to

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store things including this card catalog.

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<v ->What's a card catalog?</v>

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I've never seen one of these before.

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<v ->Card catalog is what you used to use before</v>

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there were online catalogs and this was how you

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found books by author, title or subject.

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<v ->Mark showed me, how back in the day, if you</v>

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wanted to learn about computers, you'd have to

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look through these old analog card catalogs to find

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a book.

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<v ->Computer graphics, so, let's take this over here</v>

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so we could see it.

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<v ->But, the cards were replaced decades ago</v>

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by online research tools.

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Accounting and methods, it's hilarious that

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you're talking about computers and they're on

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these little cards.

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<v ->Well, they were in their infancy then.</v>

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<v ->What I've learned so far, is that getting information</v>

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in the early '90s was a lot of work.

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Not to mention, staying in touch.

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(beeping)

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<v ->Oh, God, I'm getting a beep.</v>

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How do I even check this?

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Okay, so I guess I have to call Mike back

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but, I'm going to need to find a payphone.

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In the late '90s there were literally millions

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of payphones in the United States.

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Today, thanks to cell phones, there are only

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about a hundred thousand left.

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I managed to find one of the last hold outs.

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<v ->Hello?</v>

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<v ->Hey, Michael, I got your beep.</v>

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<v ->Hey, Louise, yeah.</v>

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Thanks for calling.

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I'm just checking in.

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How you doing?

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<v ->I don't know where I am.</v>

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The map thing is really hard.

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Yeah, this is really difficult.

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I wish I had my phone.

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I went back to the office and started

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reviewing my notes.

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<v ->Hey, Louise.</v>

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<v ->Hey, what's up?</v>

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<v ->Are you ready to start writing, you think?</v>

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<v ->Uh, yeah, I guess.</v>

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Could I have my computer back?

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<v ->Uh, no but, you could use this.</v>

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<v ->What is this?</v>

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<v ->That's a Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter.</v>

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(laugh)

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<v ->Okay, but, what if I make a mistake?</v>

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<v ->Uh, it has a backspace key.</v>

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Do you need some Whiteout?

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We couldn't find a 1993 era computer that works,

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so, this is the best we could do.

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<v ->God, so I got stuck with something even older?</v>

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<v ->Yeah, sorry about that but, you know what?</v>

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I think you're going to do this fine.

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<v ->Thanks, Michael.</v>

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<v Kevin>So, Louise, what did you learn going back in time?</v>

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<v ->Well, first of all, I learned that things were</v>

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a lot harder.

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I have all of this in my pocket now.

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If I wanted to hang out with a friend,

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I would've had to look them up in the phone book,

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call them on a phone like this or look through a

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Rolodex for when I wrote down

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their number months beforehand.

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I couldn't just go on Facebook.

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To write articles or do your job, you'd have to

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use a computer like this that was really slow

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and you have to keep your files on a floppy disk.

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You'd have a beeper and you'd have to call them

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on a payphone.

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You have a gigantic stereo system like this,

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now, I can just connect my phone via Bluetooth

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using Spotify.

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Things have really changed.

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It's only been 25 years but, nearly all of this

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technology is obsolete.

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In the early '90s, the Internet was a destination.

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It wasn't ubiquitous.

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It wasn't something you carried around in your pocket.

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It was a place you had to go.

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It was slow.

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It was kinda weird and it wasn't

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somewhere that everyone could hang out

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but, at the same time, I learned from Brewster

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Kale that the Internet was already experiencing

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some of the same problems that we're grappling

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with today.

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There were concerns over privacy, over commercialization

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and the Internet had really only just begun

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but, there was a great sense that it was

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going to change the world.