The Internet is "just" the third Network. Both its predecessors (the Universal Postal Union and the Public Switched Telephone Network) are still hugely important, it's amazing that people don't understand the significance until it's shoved in their faces as a result of Tim's mediocre hypermedia software (the "World Wide Web") and even there are plenty of nay-sayers for years.

The Network is a big deal, as big a deal as say, pornography or literacy. But while iterations of the Network are significant they're also sort of predictable. A society which builds the PSTN is going to build something akin to the Internet next.