The Source Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 Internet Collapse: Speculation? Tonight on Fox News at 10:00 EST, there will be a report about the Internet Collapsing. I guess the speculation began several years ago. During tonights reports, they will be interveiwing one of the internet creators. I didn't catch his name. One of the theories is based upon spaming emails, computer virus's, and advertising causing an overload. Do you think that the Internet may someday collapse? Do you think we will hit a limitation of what the Internet can handle, and we will have to find another way to deal with information handling? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 Wow, an internet creator, that will be interesting. I never thought about how someone 'created' the internet. But no, the internet will never crash, at least, not until something better is created. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Seeker Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 erm, yeah, the Internet isn't an entity or mainframe capable of collapsing. It is a series of individual computers, and networks that link together to form a massive worldwide interactive network. Hence it's resilience against law enforcement tracking individual's activities. Granted individual servers and systems can be overloaded with Spam, Virus's, etc, but I don't see every system on the global network simultaneously collapsing. Sounds like doomsday hype to me. [edit] didn't see the "internet creator" thing there. And the Creator looked down upon computers and said "Let there be Internet" and he saw that it was good. Sounds like the news is getting desperate for ways to freak ignorant people out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Source Posted March 7, 2006 Author Share Posted March 7, 2006 Wow, an internet creator, that will be interesting. I never thought about how someone 'created' the internet. But no, the internet will never crash, at least, not until something better is created. The internet was invented by the U.S. military as a way of protecting its computer network from sabotage. Since the web was diffused and decentralized, is was hard to destroy. At some point, the U.S. Military made the technology public. I believe this is where Al Gore came into the picture. Al Gore signed an initiative to make the technology public, but he did not invent the Internet. IMHO - I don't think the Internet is an infinite source to transmit information. Like a car or phone there are only very limited things you can do with it. Eventually, the Internet will have a predocessor. Someone else created a theory: http://www.time.com/time/reports/v21/tech/mag_web.html (Link to feed the speculation.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeiamyourdad Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 Tonight on Fox News at 10:00 EST, there will be a report about the Internet Collapsing. Yeah..that says it all I think... For some reason, whenever I watch Fox News just for the fun of it, I want to run to a store and buy a gun to protect myself...happens also when I watch most american news channel... So yeah...just some crazy man who has to warn people about the coming of an apocalypse... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Char Ell Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 So what did Al Gore, "Father of the Internet" have to say about his progeny's possible prostration? Oh, wait a sec. You said the show was going to be on Fox News? No way Al would have appeared on that channel, heh-heh-heh. Didn't you guys watch the Terminator movies? The Internet is indestructible!!! Skynet lives!!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OK, I'm serious now. ***wipes tears from eyes*** The Internet in its current form is highly redundant but not indestructible. There are key routers and root servers that if taken down would render the Internet useless. Now this would not be an easy thing to do (hopefully anyway) but it is in the realm of possibility. If we remember the lesson of the Titanic then we should realize that there isn't anything man makes that is "unsinkable." Yeah, I used thesaurus.com to find a synonym for collapse (prostration). I just had this compelling need to use alliteration in that sentence. ***shrugs*** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det. Bart Lasiter Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 The internet was invented by the U.S. military as a way of protecting its computer network from sabotage. Since the web was diffused and decentralized, is was hard to destroy. At some point, the U.S. Military made the technology public. I believe this is where Al Gore came into the picture. Al Gore signed an initiative to make the technology public, but he did not invent the Internet. The internet was originally a Department of Defense project for communication of data. However, what we know as the internet to day was a continuation of the D.O.D project by various universities throughout the country. Technically, the internet was around in the 1970's, and if one were lucky you may have been able to send a simple message to someone at another internet-ready server. It only became mainstream with the invention of the browser, the first of which was Netscape Navigator. But the technology has been public since even before all the bugs were worked out. As for it collapsing, if people would stop blogging and filling servers with useless information, and companies would stop pissing people off as a form of advertising, this thread wouldn't exist. As for my thoughts on it collapsing, no, something like that will not happen, it's not like someone can just shut down all the servers in the world. The internet will, of course, have something that will replace it though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoffe Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 It only became mainstream with the invention of the browser, the first of which was Netscape Navigator. Nitpicking, but that's not quite true... Before Netscape, NCSA Mosaic was the mainstream browser for a few years before being replaced at the top by Netscape. There were a bunch of other http/www clients as well, though Mosaic was the big predecessor of Netscape. Granted, the Internet itself wasn't really mainstream at that time (I remember my ISP, now (part of) one of the bigger ones in the country, having a single, whopping 64KBit connection to the Internet back then ) If I remember correctly both Netscape and MSIE are partially based on NCSA Mosaic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 lolz.... the only way the "internet can collapse" is with worldwide catastrophic events resulting in *disrupted power production and delivery *phones down/sattelites out *all the servers in the globe frying there are cataclismic events which may indeed caise this(eg. global nuclear war) but if such events did happen the internet would be the *last* thing we would be worrying about mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reclaimer Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 They were talking about restarting the Internet anew because of all the Hackers out there. They were talking about starting a whole new Internet. I just say this: Improve your security, don't restart it. That's just plain retarded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zadi Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 Do I think it's possible? Yes. Do I think someone will attempt to do it? Possibly. Why do I think it's possible? Because regardless of the internet being made up of various computers and servers the simple fact remains that all data must go through one of the various backbones. Destroy the backbones and you can kill the internet BUT the possiblity of someone destroying those backbones at one time is probably a billion-to-one since it would require someone (or a group of people) the time and resources to do it. There really aren't millions or thousands of backbones out there. There are only a few hundred (if that) but getting to those backbones and destroying them is near impossible. If you take the Seattle backbone offline the internet is still intact. Take the New York backbone offline and the internet still works. Take all US backbones offline and you're going to have problems. http://www.nthelp.com/maps.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Sitherino Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 WTF? This is not the matrix, there is no restarting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoad Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 I built this Internet. Out of rock 'n' roll. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth InSidious Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 The internet was invented by the U.S. military as a way of protecting its computer network from sabotage. Since the web was diffused and decentralized, is was hard to destroy. At some point, the U.S. Military made the technology public. I believe this is where Al Gore came into the picture. Al Gore signed an initiative to make the technology public, but he did not invent the Internet. IMHO - I don't think the Internet is an infinite source to transmit information. Like a car or phone there are only very limited things you can do with it. Eventually, the Internet will have a predocessor. Someone else created a theory: http://www.time.com/time/reports/v21/tech/mag_web.html (Link to feed the speculation.) Umm...FYI, the internet and the web as we know it is at least in a very large part thanks to Britsh and American academics like Sir Tim Berners-Lee Without them, there is no internet. The Internet may not have an predecessor. It may simply continue to evolve. Eventually, I imagine it will become something akin to The Amplified Panatropic Computer (APC) Net. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Seeker Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 I built this Internet. Out of rock 'n' roll. quoted for it's greatness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det. Bart Lasiter Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 Nitpicking, but that's not quite true... Before Netscape, NCSA Mosaic was the mainstream browser for a few years before being replaced at the top by Netscape. There were a bunch of other http/www clients as well, though Mosaic was the big predecessor of Netscape. Granted, the Internet itself wasn't really mainstream at that time (I remember my ISP, now (part of) one of the bigger ones in the country, having a single, whopping 64KBit connection to the Internet back then ) If I remember correctly both Netscape and MSIE are partially based on NCSA Mosaic. You can blame the History Channel for that factual error, I had nothing to do with it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tk102 Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 Nitpicking, but that's not quite true... Before Netscape, NCSA Mosaic was the mainstream browser for a few years before being replaced at the top by Netscape. I was just getting overwhelmed by the amount of information on Usenet when Mosaic came out. I remember thinking how much prettier it was with colors and images (though they took forever to load) than the dull Lynx text-based client. Then Netscape... and I'm still stuck on it, though I've upgraded versions a couple times since then. Oops, what was the topic of this thread? Oh the Internet collapsing? Um, I hope not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackel Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 there are cataclismic events which may indeed caise this(eg. global nuclear war) but if such events did happen the internet would be the *last* thing we would be worrying about Speak for yourself! If the world goes to hell in a hand basket Im still going to be online chatting to people I know. And if it goes down my ISP will have to deal with an irate me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordReserei Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 hmm, if EM pulses were to set off in specific places in the world and had a large enough radius it could effactively render anything with a silicon chip inopperable. If computers are destroyed then technically the Internet will meet the same fate. the economy will collapse shortly after and the world will riot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PazaakPrincess Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 I remember life before the internet, it wasn't good we'd be forced to go out and meet people and where would I order my groceries? or entertainment products? not to mention pizza. I don't think I could handle going to an actual store ever again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Sitherino Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 the economy will collapse shortly after and the world will riot. Hardly. The only economy as it is today would only be crippled as enough dealings are still done in physical format instead of purely digital or technologically dependent. There are also enough countries in the world without a large social dependence upon the internet. A huge technological country such as China is just now getting to the stage the U.S. was at in 1992. The U.S., Britain, and other such places may have problems for a short time after, but nothing horribly long term as to cause some sort of mass panic causing a large loss of life. Your average internet user only exploits about 1% of the internet. This would be porn, e-mail, and Instant Messengers. Minus the porn, that's hardly a loss. They simply go back to older means of communication. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth InSidious Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 "the world will riot". Why, naturally. After all, there were hordes of people destroying everything in their path throughout the 1930s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeiamyourdad Posted March 9, 2006 Share Posted March 9, 2006 "the world will riot". Why, naturally. After all, there were hordes of people destroying everything in their path throughout the 1930s. >_> Didn't these guys actually do that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det. Bart Lasiter Posted March 9, 2006 Share Posted March 9, 2006 ^^^^ They didn't in the early 1930's, which is the time I think Darth InSidious was refering to, given the stock market crash was in 1929. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kensai Posted March 9, 2006 Share Posted March 9, 2006 The wall street crash was the main veering point towards Hitler becoming Chancellor, so I would concur with lukeiamyourdad. Remember, US were heavily lending to Weimar Germany at this point previous to the crash. Also, although Hitler did use political means to get into office in 1933, afterwards it was, well you know the rest... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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