If our government shut down the Internet, there would be immediate chaos in the business world.
Internet sales would cease. Products would not be bought or sold on line. Billions would be immediately lost.
Stocks would plummet.
And the people would call for the immediate resignation of the president, the vice president and the rest of his cabinet.
I think Ham radios will be the only thing left. Maybe two way radios would work. Scary.
HF RF
Dah Dit Dah Dit
Dah Dah Dit Dah
Shortwave radio.
/johnny
The internet is not that old. Neither are cell phones.
What did you do before the mid 80s?
I sometimes think a shutdown might be a blessing in disguise.
We are not children. We are not vassals. We react badly to tyranny.
if they take away the First Amendment the Second Amendment becomes the correction to restore the First Amendment.
HF
All technology can be taken away. Shut down the state capitals that support it. And shut down DC. Show up in force. We surround them.
When the first amendment is taken away we have the second to back it up.
Amateurs radio operators have been practicing for just such an event for decades.
Without Internet, Egyptians find new ways to get online
First, if the government shuts down the internet, bad things will happen quickly.
In the US, we use the internet to monitor home medical devices, to keep critical infrastructure systems (traffic, transportation, fire, police, phone service, emergency, etc) up and running, as part of VOIP, as part of security systems, and so on. It’s a critical part of commerce and banking, too.
Take all of that away, and people are going to suffer and die in no time flat.
Now, what will we “do” about it? If you have satellite phone (like Iridium), a dial-up modem, maybe Hughes Net, live near the border, or own a smart phones, you should be able to get online in one way or the other. That’s what is happening in Egypt right now. They have a much more centralized internet provider system than we do, and even they can’t stop everything.
Some of those - dial up modems, smart phones and satellite phones, would be hard to disable without crippling the government itself. But if they managed to do it, you’ve still got more ham radio operators than you could count to broadcast information.
Kiss alot of tax money goodbye for one thing. Business will grind to a halt without internet.
HAM RADIO AND PRAYER is about all I can think of.
Cutting off the internet would be the second surest way to unite the American people against the government. The surest way would be to cut off cable/satellite TV.