Was there E-Mail in 1987? (U2 related)

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does anyone know where i can find that bono interview where he talks about u2 using the internet before it was popular?
have a beautiful day.
 
In the Flanigan Bible there is mention of the internet (1992-1993) and the idea of song swapping years before it's time. If I recall I think either Bono or Edge said that eventually the RIAA would be in a sense obsolete with everyone getting music on thier computers instead of in record stores.
 
Aha, I think I have an answer for this now, after consulting my brother who has always been a computer person. I really wasn't, maybe a few game, until the internet really got big.

He said the technology for the internet techically existed since 1969, but of course wasn't known or used by the general public. What Al Gore really said about him and the internet is that he backed crucial legislation that facilitated the internet technology being made available to the general public, because before that it was just for the gov't and Dept. of Defense, maybe a few big corporations.

He told me that as early as 1984, a form of email could be sent using UNIX (whatever that is/was) and services like Genie and CompuServe. These were the forerunners of AOL, which did not come about until the early 90's. Colleges used email in the mid-late 80's, and students with computers in rooms had access to it (he went to college, I didn't) As I said before, and he verified, it was not common or easy to use computers back then for things other than video games. You really had to know something about what you were doing, so only the most knowledgeable 'geeks' (he is a self confessed computer 'geek') even bothered to mess with them. They were mostly teenage boys and college students, or people who worked with computers in their job, or- one more group of people had access and frequently used it- RICH PEOPLE!! I asked if he thought Edge would have had it, and he said, "The Edge? Yes! Definitely!" :yes: He was rich, and with the band on tour such things were useful. Of course, U2 was ahead of their time, and Edge is a computer guy, so it all adds up. I think the case is solved, yes, it existed (though not like you see it today) and Edge, you had mail ;)
 
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MissVelvetDress_75 said:
my older brother had a commodore 64.. i remember him dialing computers and such and thought that was weird. mind you i was very young and didn't understand computers. i thought he was using it to be like matthew broderick in war games.


Wargames came out in 1983 and the name of the computer was


...


...


Joshua!
 
I had to dig this up.

I think we are all wrong and that yes, the Edge and the rest of the band had some sort of electronic mail, even if it was a closed network they had it. This may have been used to tell the band where to be and when.

The reason I think this, and what makes me sure is that in doing some *research* I came across my old copy of my Joshua Tree tour program. In the back under Equipment Suppliers the contractor that handled tour communications was called:

IMC E. Mail/Chrissy Coory.

Now when you do a search for IMC you get the result of Internet Mail Consortium. I am too tired to read what they do, but it seems like they have been around since the beginning. Either that or it is a private communications company (a myriad of these are called IMC) that handled what I believe was a primitive form of email for the Joshua Tree tour!
 
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