What if the memory of all electronic data storage media was suddenly erased?
This post is part of the 2008 advent series "What if..."
Friday, December 19, 2008
16 comments:
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The world would be thrown into a complete state of chaos that would have our current economic woes seem paltry in comparison. Interestingly enough there was a small sample given the other day when the entire Toronto Stock Exchange was closed due to a computer glitch. No information actually lost just the flow of it disrupted. It had me stop to wonder if perhaps the CEO’s and top managers of the banks should be replaced with computers for they seem to have continued to be shut down for weeks despite reportedly having been repaired:-)
ReplyDelete(1) All records of your speeding tickets would be erased.
ReplyDelete(2) So would the records of your retirement account.
Bee,
ReplyDeleteDo you notice anything wrong with your comment section?
Best,
It would expose a curious symmetry in a dysfunctional society. Destroy all electronic records and First World civilization collapses for losing its assets. Maintain it and First World civilization collapses for retaining its debts.
ReplyDeleteSocial engineering then prescribes a remedy: destroy half the data. (Nobody touches my Blackadder collection.)
Hey Uncle Al,
ReplyDeleteIf you don't have the "right history" and retain it, you get cancelled and have to do it all over again.:) To remember:Eskesthai
Best,
This blog and this comment would also cease to exist.
ReplyDeleteUnless you click on print right now...
ReplyDeleteThere is something seriously odd with the recent comment's applet...
ReplyDeletecorrection, it is not the applet, it is the comment feed - it just ends last year august. Anybody has an explanation for that?
ReplyDeleteIt seems other people have the same problem, so probably a blogger-bug.
ReplyDeleteThere would be something wrong with electrons (also in our brains?). Golden age for optical storage devices and research in photonic circuitry!
ReplyDeleteMaybe your blog feed is not protected, unless it is behind the Firefox Browser like mine?
ReplyDelete:)
your blog will have to take a break while microsoft re-writes windows xp from scratch :-)
ReplyDeleteIt would be terrible to lose all of our electronic data. As Phil said it would be complete chaos.
ReplyDeleteStanislav Lem wrote a funny story starting with a similar scenario.
ReplyDeletei'm afraid there will be a chaos :-(
ReplyDelete