Complete Internet Shutdown??

[jcountry]

Most everything these days including food and fuel is JIT shipping. While in the old days individuals would keep up with the shipping and scheduling, loss of computers and Internet would severely cripple our distribution system. The infrastructure and knowledgebase required to get it done manually is not there any more. Inventory of things folks depend on would disappear from local availability overnight.

Very good point.

Although the internet is supposed to be fault tolerant, I think it is probably only hardened against expected attacks. The problem with some types of AI is that it can come up with very novel and unexpected solutions.

I remember hearing about an AI which beat the world’s best at a game called “go.” It is a far more subtle and complex game than chess. The AI was taught the legal moves and set on its own. It played tens of millions of games, and learned to adapt to various playing styles. The experts on the game were amazed that the AI came up with a completely unique strategy.

I think artificial general intelligence is a long ways off.... But an AI with a very specific and narrow purpose could be a real threat.

Think about how much stuff depends on internet communication. Banking transactions, power substations. Hell, cell and data communications are mostly routed through the internet now. I bet a lot of emergency comm is too.

This scenario has bigger implications the more I think about it. And AI malware is definitely the next step. It’s coming

 

[ShooterG]

I can live without GPS but I’d be seriously screwed without autocorrect and spellcheck.

Those two things have honestly made me so much dumber than I was before they came along.

Forget spellcheck - I don’t even know my own families phone numbers. If my cell phone dies I got nothing.

 

[jcountry]

Your neighbor must have Windstream

No kidding.

****Stream is the worst ever.

 

[MRH]

Just ga back to home phones and mail everything. We all lived.

I was just sitting here thinking, "it may not be all bad..."

 

[hamburglar3]

but how will we know the "spot" price for glocks?!

 

[palmettomoon]

Grocery stores have what? 3 days worth of food on the shelves?

Not even close. The stores in Macon were cleaned out in 8 hours during the Floridian Exodus of 2017.

 

[adrianrog]

Man, I would get so much done around the house.

 

[jcountry]

Not even close. The stores in Macon were cleaned out in 8 hours during the Floridian Exodus of 2017.

This is why I lay back a few days worth of stuff.

An imagined crisis can be just as big a deal as a real one.

I’m also gonna find a diesel vehicle. Gas stations run out of gasoline instantly, but easily have weeks worth of diesel in situations like that.

That hurricane situation was interesting. Shows how many damned people we have to deal with now.

 

[Horsehat]

My neighbor has slow internet and **** for Wi-Fi..... so im used to the interwebs being unavailable for lengthy periods of time.

If he would activate the security features on his internet and require a password he might find it to work much faster.

 

[Horsehat]

It would be extremely painful until people devised alternative systems. There are not many areas of life the internet doesn't reach into anymore.