I was reading a book, The Victorian Internet, which talked about how connected the Victorian era was, with wires stretching everywhere above the roads. It’s probably exaggerated, but it got me thinking. There are many ways to engage in en masse interconnectivity. Computers, of course, are one of them, but we also have had, for example, messenger pigeons, drones we can send to different places, search dogs with an interconnected sniff system (I forgot what that was called), etc.
Suppose you had a civilization. Maybe it’s on a planet whose environment interferes with the capabilities of a classic internet, or maybe it’s a normal fantasy setting where the classic internet is cursed. However, the civilization still needs some kind of apparatus of interconnectivity. What’s the best/closest thing you can think of as a replacement for the internet without it being the internet as we know it?
All you need is something reliable that sends and receives data.
Game of Thrones/ASOIF used ravens.
You could use specially trained rats in underground tunnels.
Relays of lights or fires in hill tops is always an option, as is smoke signals.
Lasers or spotlights projected on clouds could work. Or the dark of the moon. If everyone just agreed to a patch of lunar dust and projected binary flashes there, encrypted to respond to others, a crazy flashing dot covered moon would be the equivalent or a public internet.
Or same concept with blimps.