if the internet disappeared (temporarily?)

johann

I guess "prepping" is a wide field that this might tie into, but have you ever considered what would happen if the internet in your area would disappear temporarily for more than a day or two? or you know that it gets purposefully blocked for a while?

Saw this talk from EMF 2022 and thought "hmm if i ended up in a political situation like that i guess i wouldn't have internet connection any more" and felt that as a person who is on the internet a lot maybe i should be prepared better for an event like this? maybe with current political happenings it becomes more likely even...

edit: said "this talk" without adding the link 🥴

Hélène

We get reminded of how much we depend on the internet when we lose connectivity because something failed upstream 😅

I think what would affect us the most would be our jobs, as we're full remote. Then, it would be the fact that we can't talk to most of our friends and acquaintances online anymore.

Otherwise, for me, I would be bothered by not being able to read docs online, and the fact that most software requires an internet connection to function (even though they don't need it). (and then entertainment, in general)

The other problems are paperwork, really. Almost everything needs to be done online nowadays... (which is bothersome in many ways, as they have the least secure, most broken services)

But I think overall I'd be mostly annoyed and I'd probably use other networks.

mycelium

johann to get the data to its target

This reminds the idiom of "don't underestimate the data transfer of a truck full of disks on a motorway", or something like this.

If the internet were to be gone on a large scale, methods/workaround would be figured out.
However, if this is targeted (e.g. bulldozer ❤️ fibre, _natural disaster) it will be an issue for all internet dependent devices and services we depend on (as said by Hélène).

Important documents and what you need to _live with should always be downloaded, as you will never know when it will disappear and finding it again might be awfully hard if not impossible.

If the internet is cut for political reason, it is a reminder on how local human networks are important and resilient.
We just need a new way to communicate (if dependent on the internet) to organise ourselves.

「 Fristi 」

This is unironically where IP over Avian Carriers would come in. Internet is but one way of sending data between computers, but as long as we can drive a car, send homing pigeons or god forbid WALK, we can always still manually carry data from one place to another.

Besides, there are additional advantages to using a sneakernet, such as that the whole net can fly under the radar. Piracy, ho!

johann

「 Fristi 」 There's a slight problem with that if you'd have to walk across the whole of Germany to get the data to its target... and I wonder if trains would even still run, since I'd think they probably use the internet for a good number of things.