"What other hidden systems are out there, where if they went down, everyone in the world would quickly notice? How many of these systems are patchwork quilts, and how many are run by one institution?"
Power grids for electricity. In Canada and the U.S. many of them are connected by wire to each other due to power supply arrangements between the countries. Bad weather of all kinds can create outages not only for the originating local area but also others far away from the action.
Most of these grids are owned by local, government-funded concerns who have near monopoly control of the resource in their geographic area.
Re-routing my @$$! The fiber optic cables that connect the internets under the 7 seas are another marvel kept together by rogue fleets and waterproof duct tape. The Zombie Apocalypse is coming.
That's a good one, too! We just kinda built it up from nothing and totally on accident when you add up the global communication network. Now, we are dealing with a total lack of architecture beyond evolution.
Great point. You can imagine a little daemon running around at light speed, making all sorts of goofy little course corrections, but still getting there way before you notice anything.
There's a very real threat in war that, even if we survive nukes... The war would hit our satellites.
Not good!
"What other hidden systems are out there, where if they went down, everyone in the world would quickly notice? How many of these systems are patchwork quilts, and how many are run by one institution?"
Power grids for electricity. In Canada and the U.S. many of them are connected by wire to each other due to power supply arrangements between the countries. Bad weather of all kinds can create outages not only for the originating local area but also others far away from the action.
Most of these grids are owned by local, government-funded concerns who have near monopoly control of the resource in their geographic area.
Excellent example, David. This is also a really concerning one right now.
Definitely. Take away electricity and the Internet dies. And all the people who got rich on its back won't be able to do a thing about it.
Kind of puts things into perspective when I'm bitching about my GPS-enabled fitness watch taking more than a second to calibrate before a run, eh?
Yes, but: that second is an eternity to a photon!
Photons are such divas.
Well-explained. Good for a chat with grandchildren. We take too much for granted
Thanks, Don! Yes, there is wonder all around us if we just pay attention.
Re-routing my @$$! The fiber optic cables that connect the internets under the 7 seas are another marvel kept together by rogue fleets and waterproof duct tape. The Zombie Apocalypse is coming.
That's a good one, too! We just kinda built it up from nothing and totally on accident when you add up the global communication network. Now, we are dealing with a total lack of architecture beyond evolution.
Many inefficiencies of tech systems are masked by the speed of light
Great point. You can imagine a little daemon running around at light speed, making all sorts of goofy little course corrections, but still getting there way before you notice anything.