vorticity Wrote:I guess the difference between this and a riot is that it can happen everywhere, all at once. It makes me worry about the consequences of what governments will do when they figure out the implications of spontaneous online action/a stand alone complex. The responses so far have been to shut down network services (India, Egypt, Syria), but none of those have been terribly effective.I suspect that most of the problem the governments have in trying to cut off the internet is that:
1) They have to destroy any and all internet links within their borders. Nothing of it can survive to communicate with the infrastructure of the internet outside. Anything less, the internet's base architecture is designed to route around.
2) They have to choke off any and all electronic communication methods that can be used to reach the infrastructure remotely. Dial up lines. Long range radio. They'd have to keep a lot of people at least 5 miles away from the border (sufficient effort can propagate a wifi signal for easily 2-3 miles).
And overall, even if they manage those two things, by the time they realize they have a problem, it's already too late, people have already gotten together. Because, not only is the internet fairly insidious (once people have it, you can't really pry their hands off it and what it gives them) when it comes to how deep it really penetrates into a society, it's also lightning fast as communication methods go, and the messages wind up going out wide.
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"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor