The Internet's fate: Deactivation by a killswitch

[Westj1211 14]

What if the entire Internet as we know it now, was suddenly deactivated by the Internet killswitch after being online for more than a decade?

 

If it was deactivated now, all of the bronies would lose their online homes and the entire fandom would collapse.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_kill_switch

Edited February 11, 2016 by Westj1211

[Celtore 2,770]

Well, there would be a hell of a lot of debating and protesting from human rights activists, the tech industry and government watchdogs. I think the least concern would be the bronies in a staged global internet outage.

 

People are working on decentralised alternatives in case of this scenario though using p2p between devices and a whole bunch of other means. If the web hypothetically went down and no alternatives rose up, I think the bronies would be alright regardless. Fandoms are fairly resilient; there are still Trekkies and emacs users after all

Edited February 11, 2016 by Celtore

[Koukatsu 5,899]

If it was deactivated now, all of the bronies would lose their online homes and the entire fandom would collapse.

False. Many fandoms existed pre and early internet, despite the lack and restrictions of the time. Many of those are still around today.

[Sapphire Lightning 784]

The internet has been around since 1969 (Sorta, but that is when ARPAnet got its starts and thus started the rabbit hole we call the internet now)

The internet is decentralized. although now a government could cripple the major ISPs or even mangle the backbone of a nation's internet infrastructure, the protocols behind it would allow for a rapid redeployment via modems over telephone lines (You all still have a modem kicking around right?). They would have to kill the telephony system as well to truely bring the net down.

It would be a massive catastrophe if the internet did go down on a large scale. A LOT of business and industry relies on it. Everything from handling food from seed to the checkout, banking, stock markets, etc... So we would be looking at another great depression, with a collapse of the economy, and maybe even a total collapse of the working infrastructure of the nation involved.

So don't worry, if it did happen, the fandom would be the least of your worries. You would be too busy scavenging food from dead humans (either their former food possessions, or the meat from their dead bodies), trying to fend off others looking to do the same to you, and dying young due to a simple infection from a cut because there would be no system to keep antibiotics fresh enough to still work.

 

But, its all good. No need to worry

[Johnny1226 14,674]

The entire internet community would go on the warpath if that happened

[Grtxkkyz 388]

If that were to happen, the entire world would be plunged into chaos. Wether many people like it or not, internet has pretty much become an essential part of our lives. Yeah, the fandoms would continue existing, like they have already been, but still, things would get pretty difficult, what wit the disorganized social systems and increasing disharmony

[silvadel 1,393]

I guess I would have to put a BBS back up like I had in the late 80's.

[Westj1211 14]

False. Many fandoms existed pre and early internet, despite the lack and restrictions of the time. Many of those are still around today.

It still would collapse. The Internet has been alive since 1969.

Edited February 12, 2016 by Westj1211

[SilyGeny 369]

The internet has been around since 1969 (Sorta, but that is when ARPAnet got its starts and thus started the rabbit hole we call the internet now)

The internet is decentralized. although now a government could cripple the major ISPs or even mangle the backbone of a nation's internet infrastructure, the protocols behind it would allow for a rapid redeployment via modems over telephone lines (You all still have a modem kicking around right?). They would have to kill the telephony system as well to truely bring the net down.

It would be a massive catastrophe if the internet did go down on a large scale. A LOT of business and industry relies on it. Everything from handling food from seed to the checkout, banking, stock markets, etc... So we would be looking at another great depression, with a collapse of the economy, and maybe even a total collapse of the working infrastructure of the nation involved.

So don't worry, if it did happen, the fandom would be the least of your worries. You would be too busy scavenging food from dead humans (either their former food possessions, or the meat from their dead bodies), trying to fend off others looking to do the same to you, and dying young due to a simple infection from a cut because there would be no system to keep antibiotics fresh enough to still work.

 

But, its all good. No need to worry

 

You said everything. there's nothing else to say now, everyone else just has to agree xD

[Minepro 107]

The internet has been around since 1969 (Sorta, but that is when ARPAnet got its starts and thus started the rabbit hole we call the internet now)

The internet is decentralized. although now a government could cripple the major ISPs or even mangle the backbone of a nation's internet infrastructure, the protocols behind it would allow for a rapid redeployment via modems over telephone lines (You all still have a modem kicking around right?). They would have to kill the telephony system as well to truely bring the net down.

It would be a massive catastrophe if the internet did go down on a large scale. A LOT of business and industry relies on it. Everything from handling food from seed to the checkout, banking, stock markets, etc... So we would be looking at another great depression, with a collapse of the economy, and maybe even a total collapse of the working infrastructure of the nation involved.

So don't worry, if it did happen, the fandom would be the least of your worries. You would be too busy scavenging food from dead humans (either their former food possessions, or the meat from their dead bodies), trying to fend off others looking to do the same to you, and dying young due to a simple infection from a cut because there would be no system to keep antibiotics fresh enough to still work.

 

But, its all good. No need to worry

I disagree with the cut thing and the scavenging thing. The internet crashing would lead to a depression. Not the apocalypse. It's not a nuke dropping, just an economy failing.

[Denim&Venöm 19,041]

Not likely, as the internet was made to be a communication source that would stay active in times of war. But maybe, rather than a kill-switch, what woudl be more likely is an EMP burst from a nuke or a solar event frying the whole thing. 

 

We go back to 1980's styles of doing things. We'd use snail mail to connect. We'd tape trade newest fandom songs. We'd send in our drawings. The Brony fandom would stratify into local chapters.  If the net somehow stayed down, then we'd probably combine our resources and form our own magazines & newletters. If this fandom somehow reached it's peak 30 years ago, you'd bet Equestria Daily woudl be a magazine. 

 

There woudl probably be a massive attempt to try and get things set back up, even if it had to be dial up connections. What would we do? Well we'd do what we did as kids: Find other stuff to do. Play videogames on past gen consoles. Watch TV. Go outside. Convert our PC's into super gaming engines.  Cause they're not good for much else. 

 

We'd morn at the extinction of the meme. Youtube would be salvaged as their own TV channel. Several for each catagory. Facebook would die. Thank Luna. People would try to revive twitter by posting sticky notes in random places in their community. Google would crash and burn. Same with the other search engine companies. MMORPG-ers would begin a massive pay to play larping campaign. Hackers woudl install their own upgrades to their games. No more e-mails. You want to talk to someone. Give them a call or send them a letter. 

 

The world without the greatest invention in human kinds history. Would be a strange one. 

[Koukatsu 5,899]

It still would collapse. The Internet has been alive since 1969.

So, you're saying pre-1969 (nevermind that ARPANET didn't successfully send/receive messages to and from multiple computers until around 1982), people did not form groups of any kind to talk about things they liked. Without the internet, the very idea of congregating with people who are fans of things you also enjoy, is utterly impossible. Am I reading into that correctly?

 

Fandoms exist because of media, because of books, shows, and games. They make use of the internet to simplify finding like-minded people, but the internet is not the only way for fandoms to communicate and gather.

I actually text other members of staff quite often, and I've been on the phone with a few. That's how we planned to meet up at BABScon last year, and pretty similar to how we're planning out meeting up this year. If we didn't have Skype, we'd still have phones, and without those, we're still have snailmail.

 

Fandoms would not helplessly collapse without the internet.

So, back to my original statement:

False.  

[Invincible 2,091]

The idea is preposterous!

 

If it ever happened in today's day and age (never-mind the technological inability to do so), someone would recreate the internet. There's just too much benefit in having it around.

 

There are signs however, that the old internet is slowly fading away. Oh, it will still be there, just... insignificant. Slowly but surely, we're heading towards complete networking - the internet of things. When there's network in your shoelaces - then you can say what we know as the "internet" has finally died.

[Guest]

There is no internet killswitch so to entertain the idea is a waste of time. This is conspiracy theory level stuff.

[Westj1211 14]

So, you're saying pre-1969 (nevermind that ARPANET didn't successfully send/receive messages to and from multiple computers until around 1982), people did not form groups of any kind to talk about things they liked. Without the internet, the very idea of congregating with people who are fans of things you also enjoy, is utterly impossible. Am I reading into that correctly?

 

Fandoms exist because of media, because of books, shows, and games. They make use of the internet to simplify finding like-minded people, but the internet is not the only way for fandoms to communicate and gather.

I actually text other members of staff quite often, and I've been on the phone with a few. That's how we planned to meet up at BABScon last year, and pretty similar to how we're planning out meeting up this year. If we didn't have Skype, we'd still have phones, and without those, we're still have snailmail.

 

Fandoms would not helplessly collapse without the internet.

So, back to my original statement:False.

So, I think the MLP fandom would collapse without media, right? Edited February 12, 2016 by Westj1211

[Koukatsu 5,899]

So, I think the MLP fandom would collapse without media, right?

I don't know, but that's how your previous post was interpreted. :comeatus:

And the books, shows, and games already exist, and they are available without the internet. I have all 4 released MLPFiM seasons in my movie rack. I have all 3 EQG movies in my move rack. Simon the Killjoy has MLPFiM Monopoly, and MLPFiM LIFE. Many people have, or have read, the GM Barrows book that I still need to read. The fandom is established, and the collapse of a single form of communication will not crush an already established fandom.

[Concerned Bystander 2,902]

Let's for the moment gloss over the hypothetical cause, take it as read, and move swiftly on to effect.

 

The internet died.  A lot of stuff is going down with it, that's undeniable.  Established fandoms (like Bronies for example) might be able to stick around, albeit in massively reduced numbers.  It's all very well saying that people can still talk on the phone, and write letters, but where exactly did you get all of these phone numbers and address from?  The internet.

 

Of course small pockets of Bronies would still exist, and would even be able to attract new members and communicate with similar groups through advertising using flyers, small events (leading to larger events) and such things.  But the fandom as a whole would be a shadow of its former self, and anybody who tries to say otherwise is flat out wrong.

 

Further to this, new fandoms would not emerge with the regularity that we see now, isolated fans of new programs would remain isolated fans, with very little means to reach out and unite with others.  Obviously programs with very large followings would still form large fandoms, the Star Trek and Star Wars fandoms for example were pretty huge even before the internet really took off.

 

And finally, no more internet means no more twitter or tumblr, so... every cloud and all that.

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,331]

I think the world would have bigger problems then whether or not fandoms are alive, seeing as how much the world relies on the internet.

 

Also this, "internet killswitch" doesn't exist.