What is the worst that could happen if the entire world’s internet were to go down for a day? (Perhaps we could do this intentionally and make it an international holiday!)
• While a long-term shutdown could be catastrophic, a 24-hour outage would have manageable impacts. The loss of many forms of communication would affect small businesses most, as they are often the least resilient. A bigger concern would be a complete freeze on all e-commerce and financial transactions.
If everyone knew the outage was temporary, then issues could be minimal, but a surprise outage with no known ending could cause panic and chaos. The saving grace would be that a financial market crash would be less likely with limited communication.
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Lewis O’Shaughnessy
London, UK
• Utility systems, such as gas, electricity and water, could be curtailed. Banking and finance would struggle to function. Police and other public services using shared databases would be hampered. Have a great day at home, because you wouldn’t want to go far.
Peter Harris
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, UK
• One effect would be a sudden reduction in electricity demand: the internet and devices related to its use consume a vast amount of electricity. This means it is also responsible for . By some , shutting it down for a day would prevent the release of around 4 million tonnes of CO2.
Anthony Roberts
Rushden, Northamptonshire, UK
• The worst effect would be psychological. When we have no experience of or direct control over an event, and the outcome is serious but unquantifiable, it is inevitable that we will store this as a fear memory.
Daelyn Nicholls
Finley, New South Wales, Australia
• Cars could still be driven and computers could still be typed on, so productivity would slow, but not grind to a halt. Given the impact of time differences, for most of the world, a 24-hour blackout would only cover part of the working day, so some work could be completed before or after it happened.
Theo Megarrity
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
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