Internet Forums are the French Coffee Houses of the 21st Century

[Xei]

And it's all being preserved like a pristine fossil. There will be no historians of our age; curious people from the future will just have the internet on a pen drive and will look directly at the imprints of the lives of the revolutionary academics and artists of this generation. Cool story huh?

[DeletePlease]

Yeah bro, cool story.

[Xei]

Man, I feel great now.

[Spartiate]

There is actually some concern amongst modern historians regarding the volatility of information on the internet. There is no more paper trail, and information on the internet can completely disappear so easily (just try finding webpages from the 90s). There are several archiving projects aiming to prevent this.

[Oneironaut Zero]

One thing that worries me about the digital age - and so much information being reliant on the digital network - is the thought of EMP being used as a weapon. Does anyone know how realistic of a scenario this is? I mean, I know that some countries might already have EMP weapons, but how much of a threat would it be if, say, an EMP weapon was to strike at the heart of a major commerce area? I know that backups of backups of many types of e-systems and databases are kept for such an occasion, but how catastrophic would it really be, if one of those things were to hit?

[tommo]

A project is currently being worked on to detect EMP from the sun. To turn off electronics/grids etc. which would be affected, before it gets here. I assume with enough advancements in the technology, it could be implemented in to every electronic device, or at least the very important ones, like servers. However, EMP weapons, are not feasible. They are fucking expensive to make, if you want one to do any considerable amount of damage. It would have to be some corporation who really wants something gone. In any case, it would be easier to remove paper from the records.

[Spartiate]

but how catastrophic would it really be, if one of those things were to hit? As much as any long power failure.

[Seroquel]

However, EMP weapons, are not feasible. They are fucking expensive to make, if you want one to do any considerable amount of damage. It would have to be some corporation who really wants something gone. Strong comprehension of what an EMP is. A nuclear bomb detonated hundreds of kilometers above the Earth's surface = EMP.

[Marvo]

And it's all being preserved like a pristine fossil. There will be no historians of our age; curious people from the future will just have the internet on a pen drive and will look directly at the imprints of the lives of the revolutionary academics and artists of this generation. Cool story huh? Storing the entire internet on anything smaller than the size of a house is inconceivable.

[Xei]

Considering you could fit roughly 10^32 molecules inside a house... lolnope.

[Marvo]

Considering you could fit roughly 10^32 molecules inside a house... lolnope. 1: Depends on the house. 2: Making a storage system where each molecule represents a bit is inconceivable.

[greenhavoc]

i just hope they appreciate what we've done for them

[Xei]

1: Depends on the house. 2: Making a storage system where each molecule represents a bit is inconceivable. 1. Derp. 2. If one in every million molecules represented a bit it'd still store the internet 100,000 times over. But yeah, a pen drive could be beyond the realm of physical possibility. I wasn't being entirely serious.

[Original Poster]

As much as any long power failure. EMPs cause permanent electrical failure, they'd have to repair the grid. EDIT: NVM the video I posted didn't mention EMPs, will find another later.

[Oneironaut Zero]

As much as any long power failure. EMPs cause permanent electrical failure, they'd have to repair the grid. Yeah, an EMP blast would not just be like a typical power failure at all. It completely fries the electrical system. If something like one of those "E-Bombs" were to go off in, say, Times Square, it wouldn't be as simple as sending ConEdison out there to fix a few breakers.

[Spartiate]

I did say long .

[tommo]

Strong comprehension of what an EMP is. A nuclear bomb detonated hundreds of kilometers above the Earth's surface = EMP. What? Sero.... what!??? How did my post even indicate what I thought an EMP is? Furthermore, a nuclear bomb would undoubtedly be even more expensive, and dangerous, and harder to detonate. And that is called a High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse Non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NNEMP) is an electromagnetic pulse generated without use of nuclear weapons. There are a number of devices that can achieve this objective, ranging from a large low-inductance capacitor bank discharged into a single-loop antenna or a microwave generator to an explosively pumped flux compression generator. To achieve the frequency characteristics of the pulse needed for optimal coupling into the target, wave-shaping circuits and/or microwave generators are added between the pulse source and the antenna. A vacuum tube particularly suitable for microwave conversion of high energy pulses is the vircator.[36]

[Loaf]

Storing the entire internet on anything smaller than the size of a house is inconceivable. Thats what they thought with computer harddrives >:U Didn't you hear? The pendrive actually beams information from a server at 1000GB/s wirelessly. Nobody really carts information around on pendrives in the future, what a security risk!

[ThePreserver]

However, EMP weapons, are not feasible. They are fucking expensive to make, if you want one to do any considerable amount of damage. It would have to be some corporation who really wants something gone. In any case, it would be easier to remove paper from the records. The cost of the first nuclear weapons was staggering, the Manhattan Project was over $2 billion in the 40's, and it took over 70,000 people to create the first ONE U-235 bomb... China is pretty industrious, wealthy, and has a large number of people that could probably work on a modern-day version of this project. Who knows what they have up their sleeves? They use giant desert drawings to align their spy satellites.

[DeletePlease]

Non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NNEMP) is an electromagnetic pulse generated without use of nuclear weapons. There are a number of devices that can achieve this objective, ranging from a large low-inductance capacitor bank discharged into a single-loop antenna or a microwave generator to an explosively pumped flux compression generator. To achieve the frequency characteristics of the pulse needed for optimal coupling into the target, wave-shaping circuits and/or microwave generators are added between the pulse source and the antenna. A vacuum tube particularly suitable for microwave conversion of high energy pulses is the vircator.[36] lolwiki

[Taosaur]

I would say in any reasonably sized city or college town, coffee houses are the coffee houses of the 21st century.

[Seroquel]

I would say in any reasonably sized city or college town, coffee houses are the coffee houses of the 21st century.

[Spartiate]

The cost of the first nuclear weapons was staggering, the Manhattan Project was over $2 billion in the 40's, and it took over 70,000 people to create the first ONE U-235 bomb... China is pretty industrious, wealthy, and has a large number of people that could probably work on a modern-day version of this project. Who knows what they have up their sleeves? They use giant desert drawings to align their spy satellites. China has had nukes for 50 years.

[tommo]

lolwiki Using credible sources of information is somehow bad?

[ThePreserver]

China has had nukes for 50 years. I know. The way Tommo is talking about it, though, is that a weapon that creates EMP is not equal to a nuke. I don't honestly KNOW whether or not a typical fissile nuke would create a large enough pulse to disable a large area... but creating a hydrogen bomb isn't all that expensive (compared to some other government programs.) I was comparing it to the "unfeasible" nature of creating just a single nuclear weapon... in the late 30's, Bohr said you would have to turn the entire United States into a factory to produce a single nuclear bomb... but now we get plutonium from nuclear reactors all of the time! China, if they don't already have an H-bomb, is definitely industrious enough to produce one. Not unfeasible by any means.