If you believe Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the Internet, then Mel Croucher invites you to think again.
He will reveal a story of two men who met only once. One was a pacifist, the other was a Nazi. One man’s vision was to harness all the world’s data for peace, and long, long ago he built a world-wide-web to deliver exactly that. He called it The Mundaneum. The other man’s vision was to harness information to control the masses, and in 1944 he achieved that too then attempted to destroy all records of the Mundaneum. He nearly succeeded, but not quite.
Mel will take you on the pathway that led him to the evidence that the Internet was conceived in 1891 and fully functional by 1934, when it embraced telephony, radio, television, data discs, remote terminals and millions upon millions of interactive files. He will then explain how and why the Mundaneum and its creator were erased from history, along with parallels of today’s online information wars.
Bio
Mel Croucher is the acknowledged founder of the British computer games industry. He was originally an architect, but moved into the world of computerised entertainment to smuggle his music past an unsuspecting public.
Twice winner of the Game Of The Year Award, he pioneered software broadcasts via radio, geocache games, the first computer-generated movie, the first AI virtual companion and the first million-user viral marketing campaign.
He is the author of text books, computer manuals, fiction and non-fiction, and more than a thousand of his columns and investigations have appeared in print over six decades. His 2024 book Mundaneum is published by Extremis Publishing.
Standard Stuff
Talks are usually on the 4th Wednesday of every month, at 7:00 for 7:30, at The Winchester Club in Winchester. Please take a look at the FAQs for more info.
Admission is £5 which also gives you an entry in the book raffle. We take cash and major cards (cards preferred).
The event is in two parts – the talk and then a Q&A after the interval. We encourage you to support the venue by indulging in the available drinks before and during the event.
You are also welcome to join us for a drink in the bar after the event.