What If the Internet Went Down...and Didn't Come Back Up?

Yes, we know we all rely on the Internet. But how much? We imagine the effects of a complete system failure: 5.5 million BlackBerry addicts would fall into permanent catatonia, and 15 million wireless cell phone users would wake from their decade-long zombie state, as the voices in their heads go silent and the little blue Borg lights in their ears start to dim.

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Brian Tue, 2008-01-15 19:48

um... probably we'd build another one. Oh wait. we already sort of did: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet2

sort of.

At any rate, any event so catastrophic as to cause the internet to "go down and not come back up" would probably indicate that we'd be preoccupied with a serious global *real life* issue. Likely would have a lot more economic and human impact than not being able to get to your payroll system.

I'm being flippant, but I get the point. Our global network's importance is growing at an incredible rate. It increasingly defines modern civilization.

I just don't see the need to wrap it in an over dramatic / fear inducing headline. It's exciting enough to stand on it's own.

subhash Tue, 2008-01-15 22:45

Frankly, I dont see much importance of this article. There is no limit to "what if (fill in your favourite invention) were not invented?" type of introspections.

The fact is human ingenuity has no limits and new things keep popping every day.

20 years ago we never thought something like Internet would change the way we transact, socialize etc etc.

And there is no point debating what would the world be 20 years hence. Economist.com has a nice article on uselessness of futurists, yes, the same ones mentioned in this article about collapse of payroll and stuff.

(http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=10230338&fsrc=RSS)

Tom Tom Thu, 2008-01-17 09:21

My interest was triggered by Brians comments "At any rate, any event so catastrophic as to cause the internet to "go down and not come back up" would probably indicate ...... Well how about the scenario of a virus attack, hacker attacks. etc which focused on denial of service. A very high percentage of machines are based on Microsoft (Which never has a bug :-)) and Unix (Iron clad secure ?) and Cisco (Never fails ?) What would happen if weaknesses in all three happened at the same time (a long shot?) and were exploited by hackers - just to prove they could do it? I would put a few $ on the line to say its a real possibility.

Its not a major global catastrophe that triggered this but boy will it have hugh impacts. Maybe "5 million BlackBerry addicts would fall into permanent catatonia, and 15 million wireless cell phone users would wake from their decade-long zombie state, as the voices in their heads go silent and the little blue Borg lights in their ears start to dim." is the up side? well maybe too many cell phone users awake migh be a bad thing.

Keep the faith

Tomtom

Anonymous Thu, 2008-01-17 09:29

While it isn't about the internet and has to have Stephen King horror thoughts in it - read Cell.... it could be the internet instead :-)

But, if the internet was down....
We would have more decisions made in less time because 'research' would be limited to the latest information...
We would have more time to talk to people because email/blackberry/iphone etc. wouldn't be there either.
People would go home at the end of the business day and work on issues the next day
Dinner out, symphony, movies, quiet walks in the park wouldn't be interrupted by the beep of a blackberry etc.

Interesting thoughts - especially for business... and where would the 'adult entertainment industry go' :-) ??

John M Thu, 2008-01-17 10:16

Possibly such a catastrophic event could be the precursor to something even more catastrophic.

What if sections of the internet were to be hacked causing a region of internet to collapse, then terrorists, during our focused efforts to re-connect and our heads are turned, start striking at various startegic locations. From here the entire network would start failing like a domino effect. Re-building would most likely be fuitless.

Yes - this article should be considered seriously.

Ray Thu, 2008-01-17 11:23

I am old enough to remember the Morris Worm of 1988 and the effect that had on our systems. I do not think it is beyond possibility but I agree we could probably be back up just as we did then. This is worth thinking about.

morton egol Thu, 2008-01-17 12:48

Simple loss of the internet, even for several months, would not be a catastrophy.

The larger risk is an act of cyber-terrorism in which the internet was used to implement such agression as launching of nuclear weapons, manipulations of financial transactions, etc.

Anonymous Thu, 2008-01-17 14:19

AFAICT my cell phone works fine without any "Internet".
Cell towers and satellites, now that's another story;-)

Nostradamus Thu, 2008-01-17 15:01

The original internet (ARAPAnet of late 1960s to 1980's) was built to withstand catastrophe and still work. The original intent of the original internet was there was no central hub or controlling device so if you attempted to destroy one part of internet the other parts will still work without that missing part. However since the start of the "new" internet in the early 1990's many things has changed and this robustness of the internet is not there anymore. Internet2 for certain schools and research organizations already exist so if it comes to that scenario then we can use that to start the new internet again. To start anew there will a many, many phone calls to get the internet up and running again.

Dennis in Seattle Thu, 2008-01-17 16:37

Why in the world am I being asked to read such a ridiculous article? It posits a hypothetical disaster and then does nothing but tell us the disaster can't happen or won't be allowed to. It's like medieval priests arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin: it's completely meaningless.

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Reader Feedback

What If the Internet Went Down...and Didn't Come Back Up?

Brian Tue, 2008-01-15 19:48

subhash Tue, 2008-01-15 22:45

Tom Tom Thu, 2008-01-17 09:21

Anonymous Thu, 2008-01-17 09:29

John M Thu, 2008-01-17 10:16

Ray Thu, 2008-01-17 11:23

morton egol Thu, 2008-01-17 12:48

Anonymous Thu, 2008-01-17 14:19

Nostradamus Thu, 2008-01-17 15:01

Dennis in Seattle Thu, 2008-01-17 16:37

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