Is It Possible To Destroy The Internet?

[TeeCee06 0]

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 0]

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 0]

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 0]

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 0]

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 0]

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 0]

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 0]

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 0]

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 0]

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 0]

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 0]

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 0]

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 0]

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 0]

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.