No Internet? Oh The Horror! (ms)
Have you ever thought about what might happen to us if the Internet went out? I don’t mean a wire down on the next street or half the town cut off; no I’m thinking bash it, trash it whack a million servers and just make all the stuff of the Internet go away kind of down. Now there’s a whole plateful of food for thought!
As I sit writing this my laptop is tied into the worldwide universe and so, for that matter, is my cell phone. I am but a moment away from the news of the world as it happens; so far as news is concerned I am good to go. As you well know, however, it does not stop there.
I can, with the tap of a few keys, access nearly any reasonable bit of information I may want. The secret formula for Coca Cola isn’t on there nor is the operating instructions for a nuclear submarine but I have enough to keep me busy while I wait.
Truth is we have gotten ourselves tied into one of the most wonderful inventions to come down the road since Rice Krispies. We can bank from home, order from home, pay bills from home. We can plan a trip, book a trip, get clothes for our trip and only leave the house when it’s time to go on the trip. The Internet has made life so much easier it is almost impossible to imagine the world without it but as a helicopter piloting friend of mine once said, “If someone made it then it can surely break.”
A while back the Facebook system went down and folks in some areas were unable to get their hourly Facebook fix. Did I say hourly? I’m sorry; I meant to say minute by minute for that’s how frequently most check in with the service. Before I go on, a disclosure: I am among them so I know whereof I speak. When the service went out it was virtual trauma for those who depend on it to communicate their latest breakup or a favorite in the next game of the season. It was an awful thing to read about. Fortunately I was not affected and so did not become distraught, pacing the floor while anxiety threatened to overwhelm me and reduce me to a blob of quivering flesh unable to forward a chicken soup recipe nor receive breaking news of developing hair styles in Paris. My heart went out to them. I thought of taking up a collection to help in counseling but that would have been a bit too much work. Facebook came back eventually and I don’t recall if I even ever knew what it was that brought it down; a server in Passaic perhaps?
Well, anyway, I hope someone in authority has done at least as much thinking on the matter as I have. Preparations must be made, contingencies considered, alternatives explored. The Internet must remain up for our use at all times for how are we to ever learn the comings and goings of those wild and crazy kids from the Jersey Shore reality show without it? The very thought numbs the mind.
–Mike Stevens
Riding Both Rails 