What Would You Be Doing in 1905?
By leelefever on May 26, 2005 - 10:54am.
In the last year I got a chance to participate in a two-day personal development workshop through a client. During the workshop it became obvious that I was very Internet-focused in my work and the question they asked was: “What would you be doing right now if we were living 100 years ago and the Internet didn’t exist?†I think about this often.
Here’s my answer: In 1905, I would be interested in radio and the telegraph. I might not have the radio technology at my fingertips, but I would have likely gotten my hands on a telegraph by then.
I would be evangelizing the technologies and trying to illustrate, for business leaders, how the telegraph and radio are going to change the world- and why they better start now. My biggest point would be the opportunity to build relationships among people through this new medium. Social Design for the Radio.
Being the person you are today, what would you be doing in 1905, with no Internet?
What Would You Be Doing in 1905?
Hmm, good question. I'm not fully sure I understand the "being the person you are today" part of the question, but assuming I had been raised back then with similar interests to what I have today, I most likely would have been a mathematician or involved with mechanical engineering -- not necessarily as an inventor per se, but designing solutions to problems (e.g. on the railroad or somesuch).
What Would You Be Doing in 1905?
I would be a librarian, probably working in a Carnegie Public Library somewhere in the midwest. Maybe when the oil runs out and the Internet goes dark, I'll pretend it really is 1905 and go to work in a library for real.
What Would You Be Doing in 1905?
Probably a pig farmer.
What Would You Be Doing in 1905?
Just in case you didn't know about this interesting book:
The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-Line Pioneers
Of course, by 1905, people were all talking about "Telegraph 2.0". . .