My email has gotten …kinda capricious in the last few days. A big tranche from last week, messages I hadn’t seen, suddenly flooded into my inbox yesterday. And this AM I got one from a friend who said a message she wrote last week (and which I received then) suddenly showed up on her screen as a new draft —she was worried she hadn’t sent it.
I remember thinking after 9/11 that the only thing preserving civil order in our country was that we were all still in touch. We had the one-to-many communication, the news channels ( and the initiation of the “crawl” at the bottom of our screen so we felt that even if something worse happened, we’d know right away) and we had the one-to-one, our phones.
(we’ve had the phone for a long time, of course, but before everybody had cell phones, keeping in touch with phone calls wasn’t that convenient; both parties had to arrange to be home at a certain time, etc.)
Of course communications technology increased and became even more widely distributed since then. In 2001 I don’t think I had ever used email and certainly not texting. Did you?
But here’s my point: we’ve all been lulled into no longer caring how far apart physically we are from people we love and upon whom we depend for our emotional well-being.
It doesn’t matter: we can get a message to and from any one, anywhere, instantly. We can reassure ourselves that they’re okay, and let ‘em know we’re okay. Or that we’re not. But there’s no waiting, no anxiety.
(Lately we cannot depend on the US Mail, as you’ve probably noticed. The Postal Service is totally decompensating. But who needs it because cell phones, email, etc..)
But now that we’re all hooked on the reassuring availability of instant communication, totally dependent, no worries!—
—what do you think would happen if a cyber attack wiped it all out, thrust us back into the days when the only way to know whether someone we loved was still alive was to go physically find them?
..and can’t get access to our own financial information?
and: if we didn’t even reliably have access to “news”; no way to know what it meant if we heard an explodion, saw a strange light in the sky, noticed a big caravan of loaded autos streaming in one direction…?
Here’s what I think would—no, will— happen: complete breakdown of any social order.
We have been set up for it.,
And I’m afraid the attack may be underway.
ST UnWoked & UnVaxxed! 
Interesting timing. Last weekend my computer screen went black and after pulling some plugs in and out, I got it back but things like font size and audio were all calibrated differently. My secondary computer had a page full of code on its screen!
My IT guy spent an hour reviewing the whole mess but couldn’t find any evidence of hacking so I asked him “Well what is it?” This guy is good- did IT for General Mattis before starting his own company. The fact that HE couldn’t answer my question has me concerned.
My banking and investment firm is now insisting we change passwords daily and I quake at the thought with my less than stellar memory and the additional time that will take.
I’m beginning to hate the modern world and I agree wholeheartedly with your last sentence.
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I still use the U.S. postal service. But I use the electronic media as well, well maybe more so.
As for banking, I have a credit union and they do well for me. Deposited $25K today and I trust them with it. Despite the prophesied break down.
As for passwords, God it’s hell remembering them all, thank God and the writers of Firefox to help me remember them. I only change them about once a year. I could tell you my secret to my passwords that always score close to 100 on the complexity scale, but I would have to shoot you.
As for a cyber attack, well that would be nasty, I think for a more definite wipe, let earth’s orbit stray into the deadly death beams from a black hole. That would wipe out everything electronic except tube technology and then the fun would begin.
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