# If the aliens or anyone destroyed the internet

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-aliens-or-anyone-destroyed-the-internet/793350>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 11, 2017, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-aliens-or-anyone-destroyed-the-internet/793350 "2017-08-11T18:09:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 17

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2017, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-aliens-or-anyone-destroyed-the-internet/793350/17 "2017-08-11T23:09:04Z")

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> [@Internet Down and the End of the World](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-down-and-the-end-of-the-world/657015/29):
>
> And that’s ultimately the problem: **The Internet isn’t a thing, it’s an activity.** The Internet is, at base, a _specific_ way to communicate data between different kinds of networks without needing (much) manual intervention at the network boundaries, as a result making those network boundaries seem to disappear most of the time. It has, in modern times, become the method, and the term, for pretty much everything we do as regards moving computer-readable data long distances. It wasn’t fated to happen, and it had to defeat the OSI Model and Protocol Suite in order to get where it is today, but that’s where it stands now.
> 
> So the question the OP’s really asking is what would happen if somehow, magically, the people of the world suddenly forgot how to Internet. And the answer to “Magic?” is always and only “More Magic!”

Because I happen to like this quote.

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