Say goodnight Internet

Just about every evening my Internet service craps out. Sometime between 9 and 11 a. m. it's back up and running. I'd call to complain, but my VOP phone service goes out at the same time and there's no cell phone signal out here in the woods.

This morning when the service came back I finally did call the company. As it turns out their whole system is going down, not just my little part of it. A major part is failing. The replacement has to come from California. It'll be at least a week before the system is fully operational again.

That's service during normal times. Imagine what would happen during any sort of major disruption. What if there was an EMP type event that fried a whole bunch of those parts? How long do you think it would take replace every system's fried pieces?

It's possible, likely even, that the part they are waiting for did not originate in California. That's probably just where it was shipped in from Asia. Most electronics are now built in places like Taiwan, China and South Korea. What would happen if there was a major disruption in shipping? Could be anything from wars to embargoes. A tsunami could knock out key ports causing delays. What if ports were closed off to prevent the spread of disease?

Modern technological life is a shaky house of cards. It doesn't take much to bring it all down. There are patches and work around for most things. That works for a bit, but then the patches break too. At some point it's not worth the effort. Our technologies are so interwoven that everything has to work for anything to work.

As for myself, I've been catching up on my reading, sitting by the wood fire.

-Sixbears