What happens if the entire Internet became offline or gated?
As a thought experiment, how prepared would you or I be for an internet with services completely inaccessible in many parts of the world? An internet that could go offline for several days/weeks. At a time that we are completely over-dependent on it worldwide for much of our cognitive thought, decisions, work & lifestyle.
Such scenarios have already been modelled/simulated by major governments and big tech in recent years and so it may actually be more likely than each of us give credit for. Before you respond with "couldn't happen", just stop and consider that 34% of cloud infrastructure depends on Amazon directly. Just ONE company. With another 30% using Cloudflare. Disruption is more likely than we might expect.
Furthermore, should the internet become an geopolitical attack vector, it's entirely possible that we'd see a counter-reaction (with political support) so that the internet when reinstated and redeployed has Government identity enforced for every Western service that interacts with the internet. With speech, searches & clicks linked to your ID and the complete criminalisation of encryption and privacy-preserving tech. All in the interests of public safety.
Win 30k Sats 🥇
To keep things uplifting,
the 'top' comment below will get 30,000 sats
on 27th December at 18:00 - because it'd be great to encourage more people to get involved with uncomfortable ~privacy discussions like these. Will likely run more bounties in future from this territory, for more articles & challenges to come.Inspired by Whitney Webb
Over the weekend, I listened to a fantastic interview from Whitney Webb on WBD. She's an extremely talented investigative journalist. If you care about your privacy the link takes you to Peter Mac's site rather than YouTube, where you can download the MP3 (a nice touch in today's world). It may not be the most uplifting content, especially not for this time of year. But it is an important conversation, given the trend.
I have already written about Starlink's unique role in a future disrupted internet if we needed to need to switch to cellular connections, as well as the trend of colonising humans via our data . In the interests of providing solutions, I have a directory of Stacker News privacy guides , a write-up for those looking at a Plan B location in Uruguay, plus a pre-announcement daily privacy challenge to come in January. My hope is we can normalise ~privacy for us all, even for those who are fairly early in their journey and who may be desiring some moral support or be questioning the need.
Let me also say that if this happens tomorrow, I would be absolutely ducked 🦆 just like most of you stackers would. So this is also shaming me into making some changes in 2024. We should acknowledge how inconvenient things may become if a) conflict on the internet increases or b) if Big Government is serious about really screwing with the freedoms that we take for granted online. We should be considering from time to time how we can improve our sovereignty in a few areas. In privacy, independence and redundancy to name a few. Even just to regular power blackouts.
Social STACKER Score
If you wish, feel free to use the numbered list as a
Social Stacker Score
⚡. 1 point for each subjective item, meaning a total of 30 points
up for grabs. Score yourself or just get involved with the discussion below...A. Files & Media
- Backups = When was the last time you created backups of personal computer files? Or backups of backups? Do they have solid local encryption enabled?
- Content & Videos = Have you downloaded content onto hard-drives for future usage? Books, maps and utility videos like home-improvements, electrical repairs, food preservation, hobbie projects, entertainment and films for kids - especially if these become inaccessible or gated.
- Site Hosting - Do you have your own website/code hosted on smaller service providers? Or are all using services with the popular corporations like Microsoft (GitHub), Atlassian (Bitbucket), Amazon, Google, DigitalOcean, Vercel, Cloudflare?
- Software Packages & Torrenting = Do you have all the software you need downloaded and installed on drives already? Have you disabled automatic software updates from ALL services?
- Faraday cage = Could all your electronics go kaput in an instant? Even if your main devices wouldn't, networks may themselves. How would you protect/utilise any expensive electronics?
B. Tech
- Mobile Device = Do you have GrapheneOS installed on your main device? Or at least have a 2nd Device / a 'Burner' dumb-phone ready to go?
- Laptop = Do you have a part of your MacOS partitioned for open-source Linux? Have you gone all-in on Linux, QubesOS or TailsOS? Do you even have a laptop with a battery at all, if power were to drop?
- Ring Cameras / Siri Speakers / Google Nest - Do you have this junk still plugged-in and connected to the internet at your house? Is it really that convenient having these enabled and feeding data back on yourself and neighbours?
- Security = Do you have 90%+ funds in cold storage? Do you have cold storage hardware that does not require third parties injecting the right code before you can send your funds? Do you have offline 2FA that doesn't depend on a server? A stash of anonymous SIM cards should you need them? Or other privacy tech that will save your bacon?
- Analogue Systems = Do you own products that do not depend on an internet connection? More and more critical infrastructure has been plugged-into the internet these days. Do you have an analogue radio in the house or other means of finding out what's happening in the world? Looked-into radio repeaters to enable Bitcoin transactions over radio signal? (would love to discuss this more!)
C. Home & Internet-Access
- P2P Networking - Could you be an Uncle Jim and share internet with loved ones or local people if they also didn't want to subject themselves to an identity-controlled internet? Be it Wifi extenders, mesh networking or sharing parallel cellular networks.
- Neighbours & Community - do you know your neighbours names? When did you do something generous (share lifts/invites/babysit)? Are you building other local ties & groups? Do you have contacts in other places you know you can trust? People with skills such as electricians, plumbers?
- Plan B - Do you have somewhere to be in 3 Days (as Robert Kiwosaki says), away from chaotic major cities/towns? What if flights were grounded without internet? When would you know to go? Do you perhaps have a 2nd Citizenship, if civil unrest breaks out in your country or if it suddenly becomes unfavourable to stay for your family? If resources are restricted/rationed?
- Transport - Is boat, bike or car an option, rather than plane? Do you have your own method of transport that doesn't contain an internet connected kill-switch?
- Skin in the Game - Will you be teaching self-sufficiency for yourself and those around you, when our ability to rebel against rushed regulations depends on maintaining self-sufficiency? Do you have a foot in the future, with a son/daughter/nephew/niece and a vision of the world you want them to live in?
D. Finance
- Physical Cash or Value for 6+ Months = If bank accounts & payment networks go offline. Do you have enough to sustain yourself if difficult to wire money or sell BTC? Inventories of goods or 'money' (be it dollars, coins or foods) to use in local markets?
- No Banks / Small Banks - Do you bank with any smaller companies, who are less likely to be targeted or complicit in the event of inaccessible balances?
- Self-Custody & Coinjoins Outlawed = Have you decided whether you will comply or not with rushed-through regulations? Have you thought about coinjoining non-KYC coins, and how about KYC if you were to gain a target on your back?
- "F$@% you" Income Streams = Do you have another income stream besides your main job? Are you able to make and sell goods/services locally?
- NGU Mindset = Are you ready if everybody else became poor overnight? How would you and I react if Bitcoiners maintain purchasing power and everyone else suffers from wealth destruction? Is your security setup ready for the spotlight? When/if would you KYC or use the ETF, under intense social pressures?
E. Redundancy
- Energy Independence = Do you have independent sources of energy to keep you connected for more than a few weeks or months? Thinking about energy generation as a form of tax-free dividend? Do you have fuels & perhaps a generator in supply? Batteries available in the event of outages?
- Mining - Do you have a miner to keep ticking over and supply you with funds to sustain your living and prevent you dipping into your stack? Or to heat your house?
- Food = Are you developing green fingers or gaining increasing access to land for parallel food systems? Storing surpluses in a pantry, growing foods or have independent water reservoirs around your community?
- Learning = Are you learning a trade, particularly offline for 2024? Having something else to offer to communities, be it growing produce, teaching (even about privacy), woodwork, electrical, writing may help increase your resilience.
- Debt - Have you freed yourself of any unnecessary debt burden? Debt creates a liability to others requiring you to service it and potentially make rash decisions.
F. Privacy
- Psychological = Are you ready to be labelled as a criminal for preserving privacy? How much are we all prepared to suffer, out of convenience, connectivity and criminalisation? Would you keep one foot in the CBDC world or remain outside? Contact with families, friends, your job may depend on this. How would you prevent yourself from poor decision-making to regret later?
- Social Media - Have you deleted data from X / Facebook & unused services already? When would you consider doing it? Before the A.I. is trained on it and targeting messaging or your weaknesses with it? Or later?
- VPNs / Tor / Proxy Locations = Do you already use anonymous VPNs / proxies with third parties possessing a proven track record zero logging?
- Proxy identities? - Would you consider obtaining or utilising a secondary government identity and operating under that rather than your own? And helping those around you to do the same.
- Future = Have you done enough research into future trends like trans-humanism, Biotech and existing 'scientific' trials that have created some tragic results up until today? Have you properly considered the complete privacy and health implications, before a highly-censored world emerges? Are you becoming dependent upon AI to write code, write articles or feeding Microsoft with your day to day thoughts? Or using open source alternatives to meet your own goals?
How did you get on reading? 🎲
Do you think a restricted internet will actually create a healthy counter culture and parallel systems? How prepared and resilient might you be? None of us are perfect, but hoping this prompts us to make some small steps to get started this next year..
30,000 sats paid
Build a Long-Distance Data Network Using Ham Radio Send data via IPv4 up to 300 kilometers with easy-to-assemble hardware