On 6/11/2008 2:11 PM, Kimball Larsen wrote:
This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking response. One item that does
come to mind is an interesting (to me) question:
Should we have a societal meltdown, which would go first - internet
based infrastructure or real-world infrastructure. In other words,
which do you think we would lose first - internet access or grocery
stores with food on the shelves?
<snarky>
You can take the food (I've got/can produce lots more), but don't take
my intertubes...
</snarky>
-- Kimball
I would assume it would be a fairly close tie. I heard once that
grocery stores carry about 1, maybe 2 days worth of food. But it only
takes a hot summer to have rolling blackouts that take down the whole
eastern half of the continent.
I think we have a fragile economy, and a fragile infrastructure, but I
also think we are robust enough to pull through on most disasters. We
have came back as a country through a great depression, world wars,
recessions, several wars, corrupt politicians, hurricane flooded states,
terroristic attack (9/11), and full eastern rolling electrical blackouts.
I think as long as we stick together as a country we could probably
survive many more disasters as well. My fear is we will eventually come
to a point where we will not stick together as a country. I see us
being ripped apart internally by a civil war compounded by either a
natural disaster, or terroristic attack. I see our country becoming
more and more polarized each year (this can be seen in such things as a
50%/50% split in presidential elections).
Kenneth
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