3 ms·
> Turn off the internet (like Iran). Unworkable without societal collapse happening shortly thereafter. Iran is politically stable through massive authoritaria
by dinfinity 12d ago
> Turn off the internet (like Iran).
Unworkable without societal collapse happening shortly thereafter. Iran is politically stable through massive authoritarianism and oppression, not due to limitations on the internet (it's not turned off).
> We can (see China); we chose not to.
It's a catch-22. We could technically if our population supported massive reductions of freedom and freedom of speech, but to gain that support we'd need to do the latter first to get to a highly powerful widely supported government. It also hinges very, very much on having and trusting a generally benevolent government. All in all, a terrible option in your simplistic form.
- tpm 12d agoIran did turn off the internet for a few months: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Internet_blackout_in_Iran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Internet_blackout_in_Iran I am not advocating for neither, just saying many things seem unworkable until they become unavoidable.
- dinfinity 11d agoIt was definitely not 'turned off' completely. They have an internal 'internet' that was still largely active and not every organisation or person lost full internet access. Note that it also happened in a country that was already very isolated from the world and that it hurt them economically significantly. It's not something a Western country can just do and keep doing for months on end without massive societal upheaval. Also remember that any connection, even one between humans and on paper is an attack surface. Social engineering is already a huge issue when done by humans and we're seeing it become even easier and automated by using AI generated voice and video. Are we going to cut off all access to the outside world permanently?