What if the internet was gone tomorrow? + The situation in my country

[pulporila]

Hi! I'm from Mexico, and recently our president decided to implement a new measure: it is mandatory to register your ID and biometric data if you want to have a functioning cellphone service.

So they've cut the lines of the people who did not register, and pretty much we can only make calls from whatsapp if there's internet- no data, no recieving calls, no forwarding calls. The people from the mountains/countryside were particularly screwed over because many of them do not have ID's and so a good chunk of the population has been cut off communication.

(It's a matter that personally pisses me off of course, but I try to mantain myself level-headed)

It really got me thinking on how we depend on one single decision and connections as we know it can be gone in the blink of an eye. Being self-sustainable and working harder on irl relationships comes to mind, but what would YOU do if the internet was gone tomorrow, for starters?

[cyberfun1 (dizz)]

Damn, i'm sorry about the censorship going on in your country. it seems pretty dangerous to be a journalist there and the president doesnt seem all that great.
is it just me or have i been seeing more people ask about 'if the internet shut down'? there was another one in this forum who asked that exact question, and there was a french youtuber who did too.
I don't think the internet will be gone anytime soon but if it did suddenly disappear, i'd invest in a ham radio set and get a license so i can chat over the airwaves.

[Onio]

there was another one in this forum who asked that exact question, and there was a french youtuber who did too.

I did make a topic about this, and later a YouTube video, but I'm not from France, so that might be another person - if you find that video, please share!

What would YOU do if the internet was gone tomorrow, for starters?

I wouldn't want to wait until the day that the Internet is gone tomorrow, I would want to start preparing for that now! Computers aren't useless just because they aren't connected to the Internet - you can fit a whole library worth of books in your backpack via a laptop for instance! There are some interesting projects, like Project NOMAD, which downloads Wikipedia and other useful content for offline use. 

OP, here is my topic, which I'm sharing because others have answered there! I'm wishing you well in Mexico!

[Bede]

Honestly? I'm immediately taking to the streets. Protesting, so on.

If we got a warning in advance, I'd try to set up or join some sort of local "downloading parties", where we'd all come together to download as much stuff as we can (and preferably print them out, too). The sort of things proposed in the article How to Build Your Trans Microlibrary:

This is a great project to undertake with friends, especially if those friends live close to you. Pool your resources, share your communal knowledge, divide and conquer. You may not be able to make much of a dent on the vast ocean of the internet on your own, but a concerted effort by a group of people can save an incredible amount of media.

This is doubly important if you have the means to purchase physical copies of books. If your entire polycule lives within five blocks of each other, then your money may be better spent if each person picks a different book to buy rather than getting five copies of Nevada.

In an ideal world, everybody would have the time and resources to have every webpage they'd want to come back to printed out, and we would all be able to freely loan out what we printed to others in our local community, as well. Everybody would be able to get the cell number and mailing address of their close online friends, too.

I already regularly print out the webpages that I want to keep safe, and I have a personal digital storage device where I keep a lot of downloads of my favorite stories and small games, so I suppose, in this scenario, I would be considered ahead of the game?

[lakes]

Things to help you prepare for that:
Kiwix: Download wikis, such as wikipedia.
yt-dlp: Video/audio downloader, works with youtube and other sites
Peer to peer software: I'm sure you know about this one already or at least bittorrent, but it can be used for so much more than just piracy.

[pulporila]

I wouldn't want to wait until the day that the Internet is gone tomorrow, I would want to start preparing for that now! Computers aren't useless just because they aren't connected to the Internet - you can fit a whole library worth of books in your backpack via a laptop for instance! There are some interesting projects, like Project NOMAD, which downloads Wikipedia and other useful content for offline use. 

OP, here is my topic, which I'm sharing because others have answered there! I'm wishing you well in Mexico!

If we got a warning in advance, I'd try to set up or join some sort of local "downloading parties", where we'd all come together to download as much stuff as we can (and preferably print them out, too). The sort of things proposed in the article How to Build Your Trans Microlibrary:

Things to help you prepare for that:
Kiwix: Download wikis, such as wikipedia.
yt-dlp: Video/audio downloader, works with youtube and other sites
Peer to peer software: I'm sure you know about this one already or at least bittorrent, but it can be used for so much more than just piracy.

Thank you for these excellent additions (and the well wishes), it's the sorta thing I've been meaning to start looking into, but didn't know where 

I have been thinking of buying a hard disk for all that sorta archives, but I've heard from a tech-savvy friend that I should wait a bit (more specifically, until the AI bubble bursts) to buy electronics, so if anyone has a say on the matter I'd be happy to read it as well.

[cyberfun1 (dizz)]

The sort of things proposed in the article How to Build Your Trans Microlibrary:

Side note, why are we calling it a 'micro-library'? Don't diminish it from the fact that its a true and honest library! No matter how small it is!

Anyways, I have an entire collection of games, videos, old websites, and more backed up on a 2 tb SSD i got for my BDay 1 year and I have it hooked up as an SMB share so my brothers can download from it as they please.

[Bede]

Side note, why are we calling it a 'micro-library'? Don't diminish it from the fact that its a true and honest library! No matter how small it is!

I dunno! You'd have to ask the author. I assumed it was to make proposing the concept of making one less daunting to those not already into archival, though.

[nobo]

Honestly, at the point of your country cutting your Internet, you have bigger problems than having a library of YouTube videos lol. You're cut off from essential services that rely on Internet. For example at my job, I can't even know what my scheduled work hours are without Internet. I can't look at my money. It goes on. Most people can't get a job without Internet.

While I suspect the circumstances might be different in rural Mexico as far as how and what they use the Internet for, I would be willing to bet that they still need it for all kinds of services you don't think about until you don't have them.

It's kind of like when the power goes out in your city, if you've ever experienced that, and at first you're thinking, "Oh no, I can't use electricity," but then after a few days of the water company not being able to provide water services because they are dependent on electricity, you start thinking, "I can't shower, I can't wash my hands, I can't cook, I can't flush" etc.

IMO the saddest thing is that we live in a world that is so dependent on Internet that we start comparing it to losing access to water. The Internet was never meant to be that essential imo. But it is what it is.

[rnottelovesowls]

yeah, considering how much modern society relies on having an internet connection to function, the ramifications are frightening. it'd be easy to say, "oh no, now i have to touch grass or read more books! what EEEEVER will i DOOOOO? " but just think for a second. what do you use to pay your bills? your taxes? talk to your friends? look for work? catch up on the news and weather? buy stuff? that's right...

the internet

if it went away, just like that... ideally, humans should react by embracing their local community and revert to doing things the old-fashioned way. but realistically, how are we supposed to undo 30 years of relying on and rebuilding our livelihoods around this tech, in a matter of days?

[pulporila]

IMO the saddest thing is that we live in a world that is so dependent on Internet that we start comparing it to losing access to water. The Internet was never meant to be that essential imo. But it is what it is.

Yeah. I naturally wasn't worried about my youtube playlists  But if internet was to collapse, I literally wouldn't be able to make phonecalls or contact anyone outside my radar anymore. It IS quite sad but I think we'll adapt. I mean, people used to send letters back then, so it shall be, even if it takes 2 months

if it went away, just like that... ideally, humans should react by embracing their local community and revert to doing things the old-fashioned way. but realistically, how are we supposed to undo 30 years of relying on and rebuilding our livelihoods around this tech, in a matter of days?

Ditto. I basically paid off my uni with online commissions! The internet's giving a lot of us great side hustles, especially in a country with such a devaluated coin, 20 dollars means two weeks groceries to me! Again, of course people in my position would find a way, but one would have to go back eating once or twice a day, as drastic as it sounds    Circles back to having some degree of self-sustainability like... I don't know, a few veggie plants or something. Hey, last time I saw a guy on youtube sow water, speaking of which (it's in spanish though, sorry)