America and the Internet

I have not been able to blog for a few days. We seem to be having Internet connection problems. Why? Well, who knows? We deal with Comcast and they are not big on providing answers. They are also not big on fixing things.

But this just serves to re-inforce something I have thought a lot about. We have become almost totally dependent on that cobbled together system we call the Internet and when, not if, there is a breakdown that knocks it out of commision, even for a day or two, there will be chaos.

A failure of the internet is inevitable. Chaos theory states that the more complex a system is, the more likely it is to malfunction. It is true that the system has built in redundancy so that if one link goes bad, another will take up the slack, but suppose it does not. Remember, anything we build has a chance of not working and we really cannot do a lot of test runs on the system without shutting part of it down deliberately, and that is not done. We are banking almost everything on assumptions.

Then, there is the issue of cyber attacks, It is possible for skilled hackers to bring down servers. A coordinated attack could bring down several. There have already been instances where individual servers have simply been bombarded by traffic and stopped functioning. A massive operation could temporarily shut down the Internet and even if only temporary, it would cause upheaval. Anything depending on precise timeing would be thrown off and businesses would suffer. Also, faith in the Internet would waver and a frantic search for alternatives would ensue and no one is ready for that.

We are also faced with the possibility of physical damage to the web. Recently, the US became fairly frantic when they discovered Russian submarines lurking near a spot where many cables were laid. Nothing happened, but the threat lingers.

Another potential source of problems is Mother Nature, herself. We are subject to such unpleasantries as Solar flares, which, if they occur when our magnetic field is in one of its weak phases, have the potential of wiping out most everything electronic.

Finally, we cannot overlook the chance of terrorist attack. Of course, they have little chance of bombing major computer hubs but, if any one of them ever gets their hand on atomics, a simple blast, set off in the air, will have the same effect as a Solar flare, due to the creation of an electromagnetic pulse. Now that I think of it, the North Koreans, hardly a bastion of stability, are getting very close to that capability.

The solution? There really is none, short of weaning yourself off its use. The problem is that businesses are going to be loathe to do that. so we humans will almost certainly become more and more dependent on the internet. It is a handy tool for business, but, putting all your eggs in such a fragile basket is a really bad idea, one that will bite us in the rear one day. When that day comes, just stay calm and trust that you will find a way to muddle through what will likely be a nightmare.