>The internet will kill us all

The world is doomed when the internet shuts down. That's my opinion.
Yes, the internet is an important part of today's society but I think life and the world were better back in the old days.

What's your opinion?

I don't think doomed but definitely in for some pain and culture shock. So much is dependent on the net and computers, nothing operates or works or runs on levers and gages anymore. Its all computer driven, some peoples heads will implode but most will adjust and we will learn lessons long forgotten, people will have to adjust doing more with less and making things last longer just like our great grand parents did during the depression and times of war.
I will agree to some point with you, I do miss book stores and libraries etc. My son continues to want to buy a kindle and I resist. But technology isn't all bad, it puts food on our table, information at our finger tips etc... But some things should not have been left on the trash pile.

Anything man made is venerable. So yes, the internet can be degraded or put out of commission. It takes constant maintenance, upgrades etc now to keep it functioning . We all have in-counter outages from time to time.
How? Terrorist, EMP/Solar Flare, acts from a hostile government (virus) or EMP detonation?

It would surely cause mass panic, loss of communication, hospitals will practically be useless due to dependence on circuit boards (medical equipment) , law enforcement (no radios), all modern vehicles will cease to operate , no water, resuppply of food stock, no pumping of fuel from tanks, The list is endless. Everything today requires computers ie circuits and the internet to transfer data.

If you can not operate a machine or place an order or communicate via a circuit/computer we are back in the Middle Ages.

A fortnight interruption wound exhaust all food and stored water, consume and medical supplies, have massive looting and riots, increase homicides, a die off of the population depending on constant medical care and treatment, not to mention the doomsdayers committing suicide etc.

Imagine the catastrophic effect beyond a fortnight. The rampant rise in crime, gang violence, neighbor against neighbor for resources , cities spilling out into suburbs etc. Masses of people without basic skills of hunting, trapping, horticulture etc . Masses without stored resources, only what’s in their pantry.....

Every year the sun sends off stronger and stronger solar flares sometimes whole towns and/or cities lose all power for days a few times weeks long (example: my uncle lives outside of Willow, Alaska and he loses power many times because of minor flares and changes in the earths magnetic field) the sun its self is slowly dying with in the next hundred years ( some scientists believe)

Mary ann Just think solar flare or emp. it is great to use it to do alsorts and if we did loose it start to get ready for the fall out

Defo thats when kids climed trees and whent camping for real not on the net or rabbiting wots it coming to

The internet dead?
That's just not possible! How should this work?

You are right SurOfTheFittest.
So many jobs are nowadays based on the internet and computers; but not just jobs, whole lives. Couples who live thousands of miles away can communicate thanks to the world wide web; the live of everyone improved, you are now able to buy things via the internet and you can buy EVERYTHING, food, clothing, cars, houses. The whole lifestyle of our society would be destroyed, too.

If the internet gets destroyed there's a good change that this will cause a whole lot of trouble. I can imagine that there are a lot of people who will riot and that the system we have now will now longer exist. People get unemployed, many will lose their homes.

Not the world will end but the human civilization as we know it.

So what you are saying basically is that one day some mysterious force shuts down the internet?
I don't know much about the internet but I guess it's kind of unrealistic that the WHOLE internet is destroyed. That's just not possible, it's not like it's ONE device which can be destroyed.

Technology improved in the last few years so much, it's incredible. I think it's amazing what we are capable of and we should not wish the old days back. Yes technology kills people but it also can save lives. Surgeries, like we have them today, were not possible 10 years ago.
I am happy that we have the internet and all other finesses of technology but I also think those things can become dangerous in the future.