What Would Happen if the Internet was suddenly destroyed?

[Mewter]

Ok, so we all know that the internet is basically a basis of knowledge (and other silly stuff) for the World. So... I was wondering. What would happen if the entire internet went down? All of it. Everything. Destroyed. Would we as humans be able to adapt to it? Or would we be thrown into chaos? Sorry if there was already a thread like this, I just couldn't find one when I searched.
Ok, I look forward to your ideas on the subject!

 

[Mini Mic]

Well I would initiate operation kill everybody, I don't know what the rest of you would do though.

 

[~Krystal~]

Eww...hard to say. Obviously its gonna hurt the economy, I mean we use the net to speed up transactions and to communicate more than ever. No e-mails means we are looking at regular mail. On the flipside...piracy would take a huge hit which is good for music artists and people working in movies or any other type of media.

You could probably teach an entire course on the effects of internet not being present in today's society. The harms are so numerous I don't know where to begin. So I'll let someone else do all the hard work.

Edit: As far as how people would react should the internet cease to exist: no problem. Were not about to take our own lives over this sort of thing.....OK those of us WITHOUT a myspace account are not going to kill ourselves over this.

All in all, people will learn patience and stop taking fast reliable mediums for granted.

 

[Ganon007]

I heard something about that yesterday. It was on the Spanish network so I wasn't paying much attention. If that were to happen I think it would mean the end of the world. Computers would be rendered useless and since most things on this planet run on computers, we would go back to the stone age, symbolically speaking. LOL your sig would be proven right too! xD

 

[Mewter]

ok, so what if somehow a virus reached our computers through the internet before it crashed? Could we simply reconstruct the entire world's economies so that we are not as dependent on the internet anymore? Or should we just mass produce new computers. the economy may collapse and advertising would become hard. Plus, valuable information is on the web, and it would be lost. Things that people worked hard for would be gone too. I am also guessing that cable would end too, correct? People may resort to the television for information more often. How would all this play out?

 

[Marie_54]

Mass suicides... and many people would turn emo...

 

[~rh]

I would spend more time than I already do off of my computer. You know, experiencing life.

 

[D13]

Mass suicides... and many people would turn emo...

Those are my thoughts exactly.

It would suck.

 

[Goldberg]

I can't think of a way to eliminate the Internet, but I trust a combined effort would restore it back to it's good old messy state in less than a week if such thing happened.

 

[Crimson King]

Actually, society as we know it would end.

The internet is the basis for much of our world's economy, shutting it down would effectively shut down a large portion of the world economy, which would force people to panic and pull all money out of the banks due to the falling currencies in the countries affected. Within a few months, banks would close and we'd have a situation similar to the depression. Without the internet, news will go to a standstill. For such an odd occurrence to happen, satellites would have to be severely affected as well, which kills nearly all media and leaving many alone in the dark.

Within six months of no internet, which you must take as no network hubs, etc, the economic powers will be bankrupt and dead. The internet, and most technology for that matter, is a great way for economic situations with countries; however, with the US, Japan, and possibly UK, the country is so interconnected through the web, that anything like this would be devastating.

 

[The Executive]

Is it even a feasible idea, though? There are innumerable servers throughout the planet, many with multiple backups.

 

[bored]

We would all go back to being neanderthals, but instead of having the internet, all we would have now is sticks and stones.

 

[Pikaville]

Actually, society as we know it would end.

The internet is the basis for much of our world's economy, shutting it down would effectively shut down a large portion of the world economy, which would force people to panic and pull all money out of the banks due to the falling currencies in the countries affected. Within a few months, banks would close and we'd have a situation similar to the depression. Without the internet, news will go to a standstill. For such an odd occurrence to happen, satellites would have to be severely affected as well, which kills nearly all media and leaving many alone in the dark.

Within six months of no internet, which you must take as no network hubs, etc, the economic powers will be bankrupt and dead. The internet, and most technology for that matter, is a great way for economic situations with countries; however, with the US, Japan, and possibly UK, the country is so interconnected through the web, that anything like this would be devastating.

Absolutely fan f*****g tastic!

 

[Ganon007]

We would all go back to being neanderthals, but instead of having the internet, all we would have now is sticks and stones.

We'd still have guns. GOD I hope we'd still have guns!

 

[GoldShadow]

Actually, society as we know it would end.

The internet is the basis for much of our world's economy, shutting it down would effectively shut down a large portion of the world economy, which would force people to panic and pull all money out of the banks due to the falling currencies in the countries affected. Within a few months, banks would close and we'd have a situation similar to the depression. Without the internet, news will go to a standstill. For such an odd occurrence to happen, satellites would have to be severely affected as well, which kills nearly all media and leaving many alone in the dark.

Within six months of no internet, which you must take as no network hubs, etc, the economic powers will be bankrupt and dead. The internet, and most technology for that matter, is a great way for economic situations with countries; however, with the US, Japan, and possibly UK, the country is so interconnected through the web, that anything like this would be devastating.

I was going to say something similar, but CK covered pretty much all of it. Most people have no idea how dependent on the internet the world and the world economy is.

 

[Crimson King]

I advise a lot of you to read some Isaac Asimov. The internet is MUCH more than social sites and ideas, but basically we are at the mercy of technology more than ever.

 

[Ganon007]

I agree. We are too dependent on our creations. This will eventually lead to our downfall...

 

[Junpappy]

Is it even a feasible idea, though? There are innumerable servers throughout the planet, many with multiple backups.

As always, humans don't plan for the future very well.

An AT&T exec says that "without investment, the Internet's current network architecture will reach the limits of its capacity by 2010."

http://www.news.com/2100-1034_3-6237715.html

And it's all thanks to online multimedia content. STOP RICKROLLING PEOPLE FOR ****'S SAKE!!!! IT'S KILLING TEH INTERNETZ!!!