Quote from: btc237ftw on May 21, 2013, 03:23:17 PM

Finally, I hear my self thinking outside my body by reading someone else's reply!:)

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It's funny that people are suggesting that the internet would be broken by a WWIII type event (assuming nuclear) - because the internet was created by DARPA precisely to be resistant to this exact threat Smiley

I was making the same point earlier - you are right.

Think about it, how is the internet resistant to war, nuclear or otherwise? Let alone the technical side, who is going to operate and maintain the machines and infrastructure? Or do technicians get to first dibs in these bunkers? And if they were so important and vital to the nation's interest and survival to maintain any infrastructure (let alone a specific one like the internet), why do they need to worry about wealth, money and value? I think they will get as much as possible. (Only a few wackos are going to care about their future wealth and ability after such a war)

Also, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET#Misconceptions_of_design_goals

Quote from: Hawker on May 21, 2013, 02:30:13 PM

btc237ftw you are making 2 unrelated and totally wrong points.

1. If a nuclear war takes place, using all the weapons that the superpowers have, hiding in basements isn't going to do much good as the environment will be poisoned. Sooner or later you have to breathe and then you will take in poison and die. As I said, I am no expert and I know the US and Russia are dismantling their arsenals. But I hadn't known it reached the point that Mutually Assured Destruction no longer applied. The danger of a nuclear war followed by a nuclear winter is that all life is wiped out.

2. An EMP takes out the electrical infrastructure, not the cables. It doesn't matter if cables survive when the power stations are disabled and when the routers at the end of the cables are disabled.

If there were a nuclear war of the kind you are thinking, humanity would be reduced to extinction level and we might well be extinct. There certainly wouldn't be the teams of engineers to run the Internet. Bitcoin would be worthless. So would the dollar. Bullets and tinned tuna would be the new gold.

+1