I read a book recently, it was set far in the future, escept that sometime in the past, a super-virus had completely wiped out the internet. I thought about this, and realised that had that happened, and we couldn't restart it, we would be in for a tough time.

So I ask you, what do you think would happen if the internet was suddenly destroyed without warning?

Bear in mind that almost all international communication is done on some form of the internet.

I guess we all be going back to medieval times

We who remember life before html would only have a little trouble adapting back to land-line telephones, regular snail-mail, short-wave radio, telegraphs, and physical transfer devices (cd-rom, and such). All you young'uns would be the ones flipping out, suddenly deprived of MySpace, text-messaging, and cellular.

Yeah, it'd make for a loss of productivity, but here in the Army, you'd be surprised at how many near-obsolete backup systems for communications we still have in stock.

lots of sex.....oh wait,I do that even with the internet...ummm, what HB said!

go back to looking at porn the old fashion way... National Geo yeah yeah....

Just means I have buy and rent more

Go quietly insane!!!!!!!

All mods would be on CD roms and received via the postbox.

As opposed to the loud way you favour at the moment?

Hmmm...I think a leg breaker might be about to receive a visit from the tooth fairy.
I would get on and finish volume two of my about to be, almost, in the works, anyday now, just need a few more tweaks here and there, if only the writers block would ease up a bit, published probably best selling fictional work.

No, without the internet we would only be knocked back to the 1980s tech-wise, unless you use phone by internet, in that case, you would be knocked back to the early 1900s. The major catastrophe would be the economic impact would be likely cause another Great Depression.

From personal experience, it is worse to have non-regular internet access than no internet access at all; it makes it too hard to keep up with e-mails, forums, etc.

If there was no internet i would never have gone to austria.
Nor would i know any of you.
I would return to my old friend DND on paper, (oh the good old days)

And I don't think i could deal with that.

I would freak out! But then I would get over it, get a CB radio for myself and friends. I guess game mods would work like a mail order catalog pick what you want and they send it to you by mail. 10-4!

We probably wouldn't be having this conversation.

Seriously? It wouldn't be that a big deal, internet just makes us lazy, and fat.
I mean, what's so bad about just going to a nearby shop and buy something there?
It's nice if you live in a big country like Russia, far away from big city's, but other then that?
Pfft, it's a joke.

It does make life cheaper, and is most definately not a joke. If it is, why are you here? Granted, the crap/useful raito is abou 20sites to 1, but E-mail, online bookings and shopping redeem it. Means I don't have to bus into Bristol every time I want to buy stuff.

wow without internet life is meaningless , well yeah parts of it internetz are my real friend lawl without it i cant lived without internet thats like omg roflz

It would be a sigh of relief to some which means the re-building of a new Internet without the ball-n-chains of the old.

IPv6, new standards only, higher security, bigger pipelines (if the lines were physically destroyed) such as only using Fiber optics, etc.

Kind of like electricity. After its discovery and implementation, it was too wide-spread to introduce a new standard so that sticking your finger in the light socket would no longer kill you. If this is a shock to some of you, yes, there is a way to implement electricity in a more efficient manner as well as making death from electrocution a thing of the past but that would mean everything electrical we have would need to be replaced. ** sigh **

LHammonds

Yeah, er, what he said.

I agree, just because the method of connection may be interrupted, the knowedge still exists to rebuild the system. This is essentially true with anything modern, even if there was a world-wide emp surge which killed all electronics, There are enough people with knowledge to reinvent everything. The only real end to technology is if humans cease to exist.

Hmm, I'd have to do that ridiculously old-fashioned thing of actually going to the grocery store for my groceries!

For one who was never good with shopping lists or coupons / deals and what nots, this would be horrible! hehe

Or you could do the even older thing - grow your own.

Of course, this could be shopping if you wanted it to - I just don't think the ground would care that much about your money . . .

Actually, you would be paying the ground with a different currency. Water instead of coin.

True - a more and more important resource.

Of course, you could also put the money in indirectly via fertilizer . . .

Although I suppose bills might decompose after a while, leaving some starches and fibers which could eventually help the soil, though I'm not going to gamble on it.

Plus, isn't it a crime to destroy money?

If the government does not value it, why should anyone else? hehehe. I really do not understand why the government gave up their right to coin money and handed that VERY powerful control over to a private company (Federal Reserve)...but that is for another topic/discussion.

If the internet was destroyed by some virus created by some asshole, i'd go nuts and grab my .338 winchester and hunt that son of a b**** down!

Don't worry, I think you'd have plenty of time to find him before he could get to all the tubes.

Aussies might be finding out soon just how that will be if the filter and censoring goes ahead as planned. It will start small and grow like a weed without said fertilizer.

Don't think the US and the UK are completely immune. In my thread I linked to a US site saying both countries are very interested in what's happening here and are looking to implement something similar.

This is the page with the news article from a couple of days ago.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/UK-Eyes...m-Filters-99904

It won't, I hope, be a complete shut down, but a lot of people will be severely affected by it. The criminals will rejoice. They will just go on merrily with what they do and the rest of us pay for it.

I remember the days before the Internet too, but I would much rather have it than not. And uncensored.

Yes. And the Democrats are guilty of destroying any value our currency had.

As for the interwebs, meh whatever.
Tangible>virtual.
'nuff said.

As for the slippery slope argument: http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=179
There's a 'net filter, plain as day.

You really don't need anything outside a 10 mile radius of where you live, or you live in the wrong place. That's walking distance. All this tech is window dressing. The only thing it's good for is making people soft.

well if the internet were to fail id say anarchy...
death...
destruction...
pain...
and all around fun
until i needed some pron [don't try to deny it you feel the same]
lets turn fallout real!!!

A virus destroying the internet would most likely simply destroy the software side, not the hardware, or at least not all the communication lines and what not, the internet would be back up within a year. Society is more stable then most believe.