155 replies to this topic

[TeeCee06]

I have always wondered if it is impossible to destroy the internet all together... is this even possible?

If it is possible to destroy the internet what would you have to do? Would you have to destroy all the Internet companys like comcast and aol? Or would that not even take care of it?

Just think, if someone took down the entire internet not only would our lives be boring but it would basically destroy the U.S. & other big countries all at once.

[Plenoptic]

There isn't a way to take down the internet. Not permanently anyway. The most you can do is take out an area at a time by destroying the systems at an Internet Hosting Provider. Even then you wouldn't really be able to destroy it all completely. People would still have the internet. Plus without Internet, the economy would drop, communication would have to go back to telephone, and all hell would break loose.

[gameratheart]

Actually, while it may not be possible to remove the internet, it is possible to create a way to stop people from using it.

Have you heard of, "Digital Doomsday"? This is a theory that, what with all the internet hackers getting smarter every day, soon someone will have figured out a way to send a powerful virus to everyone connected to the internet, with the ability to permanently jam the connections. This basically will make the internet useless, which is just as bad as destroying it, really.

[TeeCee06]

NDPA, on Nov 18 2006, 10:34 PM, said:

Actually, while it may not be possible to remove the internet, it is possible to create a way to stop people from using it.

Have you heard of, "Digital Doomsday"? This is a theory that, what with all the internet hackers getting smarter every day, soon someone will have figured out a way to send a powerful virus to everyone connected to the internet, with the ability to permanently jam the connections. This basically will make the internet useless, which is just as bad as destroying it, really.

When I was creating this topic I was thinking about something like that but I couldn't really come up with the right words to explain it and it still sound correct but that is another thing I have thought about before. If all computers are connected somehow there could always just be a way to block each computer at once right?

[ink]

Why o why do you think of such evil things? LOL j/k I think it's possible, I'm not sure how, but there must be some way to make block everything, which makes it impossible to have anymore acces to the internet. Maybe the internet won't be fully 'removed', but atleast it's cluttered and non-usable or something. But then again, why would somebody want to do that It's not fully, but almost something like destroying the earth, since the internet forms another sort of 'world' we are living in and dependent of in so many ways. I hope this thread is not giving certain sick minds hope or inspiration O.O

[gameratheart]

ink, on Nov 18 2006, 10:50 PM, said:

Why o why do you think of such evil things? LOL j/k I think it's possible, I'm not sure how, but there must be some way to make block everything, which makes it impossible to have anymore acces to the internet. Maybe the internet won't be fully 'removed', but atleast it's cluttered and non-usable or something. But then again, why would somebody want to do that It's not fully, but almost something like destroying the earth, since the internet forms another sort of 'world' we are living in and dependent of in so many ways. I hope this thread is not giving certain sick minds hope or inspiration O.O

I know what you mean, ink. We are so dependant on the internet for communication and transportation nowadays, losing it would be a big blow. I have this book called "The Incredible Internet" which lists everything that'd happen if "Digital Doomsday", comes true. Unfortunately I seem to have misplaced it, so I cant tell you what it says.

[TeeCee06]

ink, on Nov 18 2006, 10:50 PM, said:

Why o why do you think of such evil things? LOL j/k I think it's possible, I'm not sure how, but there must be some way to make block everything, which makes it impossible to have anymore acces to the internet. Maybe the internet won't be fully 'removed', but atleast it's cluttered and non-usable or something. But then again, why would somebody want to do that It's not fully, but almost something like destroying the earth, since the internet forms another sort of 'world' we are living in and dependent of in so many ways. I hope this thread is not giving certain sick minds hope or inspiration O.O

When I made this thread I didnt intend for it to give anyone sick idea but im sure anyone who wants to cause tons of problems has probably already thought of something such as that. Personally I think its a very interesting topic & if it is actually possible to block all computers from each other then the government really needs a backup plan, at least for all the financial parts of the internet.

[NigaiAmaiYume]

One of the reasons the Internet developed was to PREVENT such an occurance. Networks were supposed to prevent a system from being taken down in an attack because all the information was shared among multiple sites. If one bank of computers were destroyed, for example, the others would still have backup.

At least, that's what I remember from High School Computers. More info than I currently care to read here. Forgive my mistakes above.

That having been said, things have progressed beyond the original intention. Hackers, both individual and in groups, have infinitely more skills that could have been imagined in the days of ARPANET. The danger no longer lies without, but within.

Could the internet be taken down? In my naive opinion, yes, but not permentantly. The human condition encourages people to continually strive to both destroy and create, and I can only hope the later will always be at least as strong as the former.

As for the fear this thread will encourage such destruction - that's like blaming violence on video games. People are going to do what they want to do within the limits of their knowledge. True, we might have planted the seed in one person that previously hadn't thought about it. We're far from the first to consider it, however, and if they were truly interested, they would have found the idea somewhere else.

Ignoring a problem will not make it go away. Those that are concerned MUST discuss it, if only to realise the depth of the threat.

[ink]

TeeCee06, on Nov 19 2006, 12:11 AM, said:

When I made this thread I didnt intend for it to give anyone sick idea but im sure anyone who wants to cause tons of problems has probably already thought of something such as that. Personally I think its a very interesting topic & if it is actually possible to block all computers from each other then the government really needs a backup plan, at least for all the financial parts of the internet.

Don't worry, I don't mind you making this thread at all I find it an incredibly interesting question aswell I was just expressing my unbelief/surprise about the thought that somebody really would have a reason to get rid of the complete internet. Just like a human being would want to destroy, not just a country... but make the earth die and disappear. It would be odd if someone had this intention, I'm pondering about what could be the reasons of that person. I guess blocking the internet of some government by a terrorist organization or such would make sense (not good..but still it would d be a logical thought), but making the *whole* internet non-existent...?

About the back-up plan, maybe something like that does exist, secretly. In history the world and governments functioned without the internet aswell, with the help of other tools. Communication was slower probably, and a bit less efficiënt since video chatting and such wasn't available, but it still worked. A sudden disappearence of the internet would cause panic, and frustrate millions of people, but we should be able to re-adapt to an internetless world over time.

I agree that it wouldn't really be possible to destroy the internet permanently. Since we ourselves created it, bit by bit, and are doing it continuously, we should be able to reconstruct it aswell. How fast and accurate that would be, would depend on the exact manner in which it was deconstructed, and it's still interesting how the latter would be managed.

[apurva]

there is no way that internet to be destroyed.
the only way i can find is that internet providers stop providing the service,which i dont think will be possible for they earn so much and for we yearn them so much

[me_boxer_dude]

Personally to this day I have never agreed to the possibility of the Internet being destroyed alltogether however I do agree that the ever evolving hackers may invent and unleash a virus that may jam the connections thus rendering the Internet unusable(though it cant last longer than a few mins hopefully) If hackers are evolving smarter ways of blocking the traffic altogether or part of it, the counter actions being taken by security administrators can also not be undermined and so is the belief that Internet can be stopped completely. The other way would be to take one hosting area at a time and destroy it thereby blocking some of the traffic. God forbid if such a thing were to happen anyhow it would impact all of our lives negatively for sure some way or the other so lets hope the day never comes.

[icemarle]

I don't think it's possible. BUT, it's possible to prevent people from accessing it... Destroying it altogether? I don't think so. I don't think every single web server will go down just like that. The world is a wide place... Unless something happens like a world-wide black out or some weird natural phenomenon... The internet will vanish for some time, but I don't think it will be gone forever.

[garbage]

hey bro anything is possible.. regardless of what steps you have to go thru to be able to pull something like this.. it is possible.

[salamangkero]

garbage, on Nov 19 2006, 09:18 PM, said:

hey bro anything is possible.. regardless of what steps you have to go thru to be able to pull something like this.. it is possible.

True. I'd have to agree that it is possible to destroy the Internet, temporarily or permanently, however, I doubt any of it is actually feasible at the moment. Consider these:

1. EM pulses - from a nearby star, the earth's core or global surface sources
2. War - Nuclear abomination on key locations
3. Solar Activity - The sun begins aging further into a red giant
4. Apocalypse - whatever it is

Well, all those are really possible but I doubt any human, or group of humans, can actually orchestrate such events for the sole purpose of destroying the Internet, without any massive casualty.

Yes, I do have an ill mind at times. No, I don't act on all of my mind's whims, thank you.

[zeeman48]

There is no way to truly "destroy" the internet. You can completely and utterly ruin it but unless you go to all the ISPs in the world and smash their computers and cut all their phone lines, you can't destroy the internet.

The only way I have ever thought of that could ever destory the internet would be to infect and control all of the unprotected computers and then use them to DDOS more powerful computers to the point where their owners dump the hard drive and reinstall. Then, you take over with the default passwords and keep doing this until every computer on the internet is under your control. Then you have ever computer DDOS every other computer until the networks get so clogged that every site crumbles and falls.

A better way is just to DDOS all the major search engines (Google, AltaVista, Ask.com, Dogpile, etc.) and shut down the major sites (e.g. MySpace, GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Miniclip, etc.) to make the internet utterly boring and useless. Then, after people started to realize the internet couldn't do anything, they would all stop using it and no one would make any money and the internet would cease to exist.

However, even if you collapsed the internet in some fiendishly advanced way that no one expected and all the ISPs either gave up or went into bankruptcy and dissapeared, all the techies and geeks and hackers in the world would start engineering their own "mini-internets" that would eventually spread through the world. After all, it's boring beinga hacker with nothing to do.

[kawasu]

interesting topic... i remember the days without mobiles and the internet. they were still rather livable of course, and although it would impact the world massively if the internet were to fall, we'd get used to it over time, reverting back to older methods of communication.

the destruction of the internet itself doesn't seem like its impossible, though it does appear to be an extremely hard task to accomplish. you'd have to take out so many key internet providing points and even then i'm sure there are some secret facilities which accommodate for say, government or military communication. on the other hand, if the internet was used against itself to block/damage communication ports the idea doesnt seem so far fetched. the idea people have brought up about blocking access of overloading data seems like more of a rational idea for a hacker/retard trying to destroy the internet.

anything is possible, but i honestly don't think i'll ever see something like this happening for a long time to come. even then, i'm sure we'll other means of effective communication apart from the internet to keep us going on a daily basis.

[the_aggie10]

Whoever did this would be killed quickly. but maybe it would do us all good. We would be more active and all. but it would be awfully boring. lets just keep it like it is

[darran]

I think it is pretty much impossible to destroy the internet. Just think of how many web servers there are in 1 country, much less the whole world? And even so, it is so easy to create a web server and another one could be created easily while you are trying to take down 1. The internet is a major part of our lives, not only economically but also academically. There are so many things such as tutorials, e-commerce going on in today's websites. Taking them down would be drastic, the internet is such a big place, it would be very difficult to explore the whole internet using our entire lifespan much less destroy it

[Sprnknwn]

I think this would be possible but highly unlikely. There should be a world wide alliance of digital terrorism or something like that. Lots of people to crash all the big servers in the world and none of them failing in that task. And seriously I don´t think there are so many people who hate Internet... I mean. not enough to do this. And anyway, there would be really difficult for them to communicate and set the attack at the very same time without using internet... so I guess people who would do that, will never want to destroy Internet. I mean, most people that hate Internet in the world is supposed to not use it very much... so... ¿how could they hack anything without even knowing how to search on google?

Not very easy uh? By the way, I haven´t heard about digital doomsday but its only name sounds scary.

[Florisjuh]

There is no way to destroy the internet I think, but there are enough ways of damaging it I guess. Nowadays sites often get ddos'ed (which means people will target the website specifaly and overload its capacity), hacked and various other things done to them. While you don't take down the entire net doing these kind of actions, you do damage parts of it. Hackers can destroy your access to the internet (your own computer) or people might try to take down an Internet Service Provider by either ddos'ing or hacking again. I guess the internet is pretty vulrunable, but taking it down competely seems like an impossible task.

I wonder what would happen if someone was able to take down the entire internet, maybe even war? The internet has become very, very unmissable by many of us, for example.. What would you do today if there is no internet anymore? And what would you do tommorow? And the day after? I for example would lose a lot of contacts I have on the internet, it would probably drive me crazy if it wasnt available...

[dylan2xs]

Well what I really think is that SPAM could destroy the internet, just try to umagine internet with no emails sounds weird I know but it could happen, If you have ever received thousands of spams per day, and have found an effective way to prevent them from destroying your inbox, please post your ideas here.I have four main e-mail accounts. The main one is flooded with tons of spam everyday, it has reached 5,000 messages, I never check it. On the other hand, the other is always clean, I never receive spam. It's the one only my friends know. but I'm afraid that someday I open them and find "READ ME" from pokhñklp@uyeopjuk.com

[techclave]

This topic actually reminded me of a nice GIF image showing the message "Downloading the internet" .. " Disk space not enough" !!!

It would be really a himalayan task to destroy the internet ., if one thinks ,he has to . ..
Maybe one day, all human race might come to an end, with the internet also eventually getting destroyed..
Or, like in the terminator 3 movie, there might be a time when a particular machine gets control over all others , and maybe, gives a thought of self terminating itself, and all computers in the world.. That would be the James Cameroon way to look at this question..

But apart from it, in the present day trend, i guess it is more than impossible to do it.. For one simple reason,, the destroyer would not even have a clue of where to start , and how to go about his attack. Maybe, he can affect the way it works , for a period of time.. But that too would be restricted to a period of time with the power of Internet.

We , could of course argue by saying

"Where there is a will, there is a way !!!"

After watching sci fi movies , like Terminator, matrix triologies, we could expect anything to happen to us in the future !!! But, if common sense prevails, Internet is immortal, as far as i am concerned .. .

[Rap_Speedy]

that would be really not cool.. no internet equals no civilization.

[Matrixdudej]

i think its possible but,no one has figured out how yet and one day someone might take the internet hostage but why are you wondering anyway?

[Dooga]

Maybe there's a switch located deep in the white house that shuts off the internet