What would happen if the internet collapsed?

If the internet were to go away so would my pron, and that is no good.

How would you feel if your telepathic ability was suddenly taken away from you? The internet is now a very integral part of Humanity since it is the closest thing to instant connection and communication with each other, short of telepathy.

Originally posted by AccessDenied
Iam a self proclaimed Internet Junkie. I literally spend 4-6 hours a day online, usually here at ATS.
I WOULD GO INSANE without it.
however, hasn't all this been discussed before..as in a little Y2K bug..
Why are we rehashing this?

I am new here so i didn't know if it has already been discussed.

I just wanted to know what everyone thought because its a big part of everyones lives now!

I’d have nothing to do on Friday nights – And no way to download porn!

A lot of things would happen.

The initial shock might be enough to frighten people into waking up, for one.

Critically, is that quite a large portion of modern business is actually feeding off the internet even as this discussion carries on - there are internet businesses (like advertising) which combined give quite a substantial fee in taxes.

Which could have a knock on effect if we all just sit there with our pants around our ankles (like deer caught in headlights).

It's a good question, and i for one promote the idea that a contingency should be in place in case someone decides to EMP a major city.

There are about 15 infastructure gateways for the world wide web. They handle all the Internet service routing and are the backbone of the WWW. If 4 or 5 of these were knocked out (for any reason), the Internet would be virtually useless.

These sites are all secured sites with full backups and reduncey to prevent outages. The routing and storage capacity of all of them is state of the art, but still being pushed to the limit.

If the Internet ceased to operate, my company and thousands of others would be dead in the water and go out of business. Like oil, the Internet is the backbone of doing business. Two conveniences we can't live without is the Internet and oil. I have noticed about two years ago that the Internet was getting bogged down and needed major upgrades. This is happening now, but it takes time to update an infastructure that is so engrained into our society. If the Internet fails, it would be a life changing event.

I really can't see this happening barring a major natural calamity or a major world wide conflict.

Well a lot of these wacked out conspiracy theories wouldnt exist now would they?

The work around the house would increase. That would suck. haha More time spend doing physical things I like to do, not to mention time extra time I'd have to do it. Wouldn't be a bad thing at all, except I'd now have to snail mail my bills instead of click playing. That would make me cry. I don't want to go back to licking stamps.

Originally posted by eagledriver
There are about 15 infastructure gateways for the world wide web. They handle all the Internet service routing and are the backbone of the WWW. If 4 or 5 of these were knocked out (for any reason), the Internet would be virtually useless. ...

No, there aren't. Look at maps of the traffic patterns of the WWW. They use those "infrastructure gateways" because they are the cheapest when it comes to traffic flow (cost per month to lease the physical lines), but they aren't the only "gateways".

As an example, I live about 20 minutes outside of a major city, and about 15 minutes away from a minor city. My ISP comes from the minor city. My internet traffic routes to a podunk city, then through another podunk city, to another one, then to Patterson, NJ. It doesn't go through any big city (unless the traffic is destined in said city).

Proper operation of the routing protocols (not the routED protocols) keeps things flowing fairly smoothly, *IF* things have been set up correctly, and they utilize backup connections.

The internet may slow down a bit if those 15 "gateways" are put out of commission, but it wouldn't "shut down".

Again, I repeat: The internet was designed to maintain communications in the event of a full scale nuclear war with Russia.

Edit to add: Look at this, and tell me again there are 15 "choke points" on the internet: www.newscientist.com...


[edit on 29-4-2008 by sir_chancealot]

Last question first. The internet was created to maintain communications in the event of a full-scale nuclear war! You think some terrorists are going to take it out?

The internet wasn't designed to withstand a nuclear war - thats just one of those strange myths handed down by teachers who dont know any better. Source

Anyway the internet wont collapse, it's design at the most basic level prevents this.

Originally posted by dawa

Last question first. The internet was created to maintain communications in the event of a full-scale nuclear war! You think some terrorists are going to take it out?

The internet wasn't designed to withstand a nuclear war - thats just one of those strange myths handed down by teachers who dont know any better. Source

Anyway the internet wont collapse, it's design at the most basic level prevents this.

Read the first thread! There doesn't have to be a reason...

Originally posted by dawa

Last question first. The internet was created to maintain communications in the event of a full-scale nuclear war! You think some terrorists are going to take it out?

The internet wasn't designed to withstand a nuclear war - thats just one of those strange myths handed down by teachers who dont know any better. Source

Anyway the internet wont collapse, it's design at the most basic level prevents this.

www.nic.funet.fi... differs on that assessment. What is Arpanet's full name? DEFENSE Advanced Research Projects Agency.... That link lead to this quote

...1964
Data transmission begins in practice in Finland when Kesko is licensed to use four modems with its Plessey PT750PT paper tape system. The Rand Corporation, funded by the US Air Force, produces a report on distributed Computer networks, which describes the advantages of distribution compared with the centralised mainframe systems typical of the day. One of the most important features was the continued functioning of the system regardless of whichever part of it might be destroyed in an enemy attack."

But then again, what does that guy know, he was merely in on the original design with darpanet. (Yes, it was originally darpanet, before it become arpanet, a fact most people forget.)

Considering in 1964 computers were maintained in entire floors of building, and weren't portable like they are now, they were talking about an attack on America. Now, do you think they were worried about Russians dropping 500lb conventional explosive bombs on enough targets to take out communications, or were they talking about nuclear weapons drops?

Berkeley Students once pinged a server in japan, where part of the route of the ping went through BONGO DRUMS. Yeah, like you see people play on the movies. That's how robust (as in reliable) TCP/IP is. That's why in the mid 90s, there was such an issue with malformed packet, DDOS, etc, problems. Everyone was so concerned about making sure the packet got there in one piece, no one thought about what happens if you intentionally mis-shape packets.

Right now, TPTB *WANT* you to think the Internet is some fragile, delicate thing. It isn't. Where is the most freedom of speech taking place? On the internet. Where is the most truth coming out? (Most lies too, unfortunately) The internet. How do most people research things that they think might or may be true? The internet. How do non-sheeple get their news? On the internet. (In a related manner, it's sad, yet comical, how often someone will come up to me and say "Did you hear about X on the news this morning?", and I'll say "You just heard about it today? I read that on the Internet several days ago!")

When TSHTF, they will HAVE to close the internet, because that is where the majority of the truth will be. When it REALLY hits, people won't be able to hid behind their cognitive dissonance anymore. So, the only way to keep them in the dark, in their "bread and circuses" if you will, is to shut off the free flow of information. And that flow is the internet. What better way to shut it off than to blame it on "tuhrrists", because the internet "is so fragile"?

Realize this: If the main hubs are EMP sheilded, even an EMP event 200 miles above central ConUS won't effect main hubs, because the traffic is carried via fiber optic cables, which don't transmit emp pulses.

The quote there from 1964 isnt actually about ARPANET. If "Charles Herzfeld, ARPA director from 1965 to 1967" says it wasnt designed to withstand an attack - ill believe him.

The videos on that site from the ARPANET guy dont even mention an attack, the reason for it being a distrubuted network was simply because computing at the time was unreliable, you needed a bunch of seperate nodes to go through if one went down. Obviously this has the added benefit of withstanding an attack.. a bit.


Anyway theres no point arguing about any of it, pretty pointless. The internet wont collapse unless we lose all our computers worldwide in some crazy EMP attack - in which case id be more worried about the fact I had no electricity or water than no internet!

Originally posted by ben91069
A lot of people would save money, but they would find new ways to spend it, and probably even more. It is cheap entertainment.

If the net collapsed, I would probably be working more on my other projects and have less anxiety over what is happening in the world.

I've noticed that since getting online the first time back in 95' that I tend to know more about what is going on in the world than I ever did before, and it isn't necessarily for the better. It seems our awareness has increased, but less and less is actually being done about things.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

That was very similar to what I was going to say. I honestly don't believe the world today is any different than the world of 20, 30, or 40 years ago. Horrific carp was occuring back then, too. People say "but it wasn't at the rate it is today." Baloney! We just never heard about it because there was only so much that Walter Kronkite could cover in the half hour before Wheel of Fortune came on every evening. The network "world" news covered only the most important stories and the local news was too busy talking about local farm reports & the high school basketball championships to ever worry about national news, let alone world news. If children were starving in China, who cared? We didn't know about it and we were better off for it. Why? Because ignorance is bliss... seriously it is. I'm happy as can be that I grew up in an era without being hotwired into the interwebs.

Originally posted by aleon1018
reply to post by CoNsPiRaCy PhReAk

 

Southpark did a parody on this topic and people had to drive to the west coast for 40 seconds of service. I guess some people are internet addicts?
[edit on 28-4-2008 by aleon1018]

This was my first thought when I saw the headline! Episode came out last week and was quite good (if you like SP humor.) Anyone else notice that the Internet "refuge" camp seemed a lot like a military police detention center?

one thing for sure is chat via snail mail would be a pain and the postage a killer!

imagine paying for a stamp to drop a 'lol' reply in the mail box

Originally posted by Agent47
If the internet were to go away so would my pron, and that is no good.

That's porn.... I think...

What would happen if the internet collapsed?

My house and my car would be cleaner. My mail would be handwritten and slower. My cats would be brushed more often. I'd get more exercise. I'd read more books.

Shall I continue?

You must be unemployed!

Let's look at this through a business perspective. I would say a LARGE majority of businesses rely on the Internet to some degree. In fact many would become dead without the Internet, mine included. If the Internet ceased to function, you can sit at home and brush your cat or get out and look for a still functioning business along with millions of newly unemployed Americans. All the unemployeed IT engineers would be doing pizza delivery or bagging groceries.

If a majority of the 15 WWW backbones were destroyed, the Internet may still function but would be virtually useless! I would make a 300bps modem look fast.

Pretty amazing how MJ caused google and twitter to crash..what would happen if something like an 9/11 happens again, but then bigger..The internet can not sustain such events...