On being cut off from
the internet for 18 hours

Are we too dependent upon technology, and can these systems be controlled?

By Irwin Rapoport

December 11, 2025

A few years ago, on a cold January morning, my internet service provider conducted some network maintenance, disrupting my internet service. My landline was functioning, and the radio kept me updated news-wise, but I was unable to communicate by email, share files, search for links – the very elements of my normal work routine.

There were deadlines to meet that day, and I was awaiting vital information. It was not the end of the world, but to a large extent, my workday was crippled. I could not access Facebook, which affected some rights and freedoms campaigns regarding Bills 21 and 96, as well as environmental initiatives I was involved in. What I experienced happens daily. But it is worth recounting, as the incident demonstrated how fully dependent we are on a functioning universal and complex communications system. Bell representatives assured me that crews were working rapidly and that my service would be restored in a few hours. It would last 18 hours.

Some may say I was dealing with a “first-world problem.” However one wants to describe my situation, it illustrates how dependent we are on technology.

… the incident demonstrated how fully dependent we are on a functioning universal and complex communications system. Bell representatives assured me that… my service would be restored in a few hours. It would last 18 hours.

James Burke, in The Trigger Effect, the first episode of his 1978 series Connections, began the groundbreaking documentary on technology and how dependent we are upon it, with the impact of the 1965 power blackout, which darkened much of the northeastern United States, including New York City.

Burke, a British journalist fascinated by technological change and its impact on the development of civilization, recounted the cause of the power failure, the experiences of New Yorkers stuck in the subway, a medical team dealing with the birth of a baby, and how the city was brought to a standstill.

Burke explained that a relay, which performed its function by reacting to a power surge, was responsible for the domino effect that led to the regional power outage. He stressed how millions of people had complete faith in technology and the associated infrastructure that would solve the problem. It was only after a few hours that many began to worry. Five hours later, power was restored, and life returned to normal. Burke stressed that, while disconnected from how technology works and sustains itself, we expect it to function 24/7. Today, we live in a world where technological systems are even more complex, far more distant and mysterious, and beyond our grasp to understand, operate, and repair.

The opening episode then postulated a dystopian scenario in which power did not return and presented an NYC family that, assuming it could leave the city, found a farm and questioned whether they had the know-how to operate farm machinery, grow crops, and survive in the long term. Needless to say, the situation was bleak.

Burke then went on to illustrate how humanity faced a similar problem about 11,000 years ago in North Africa, when the climate changed dramatically and the once-green, water-rich areas of the now-Sahara Desert collapsed. This led to refugees from a once lush and sustaining environment to flee to the Nile and establish a new civilization in Egypt that formed the basis of a scientific revolution that not only sustained life, but sparked the impetus to develop a fully-functioning system of government that brought together the expertise to work in harmony and harness technology to achieve greatness. This civilization achieved food security, a stable society, and social activity that reached new heights, giving us many splendours and architectural masterpieces – the pyramids and countless temples; the arts – painting, literature, and sculpture; fashion; literacy and storytelling; religion; fables; philosophy; and the essential elements of civilization we take for granted.

Burke and his team produced three series of Connections, and the brilliant series The Day the Universe Changed. These informative series are worth watching for the first time and re-watching. Since they were aired, the messages and themes are even more prescient.

‘Should the global communications system break down for a prolonged period, along with the production of electricity and other energy sources that sustain our lifeline systems, the world would come to a standstill.’

The bulk of this column was written during the internet suspension, but the general principle remains the same. Should the global communications system break down for a prolonged period, along with the production of electricity and other energy sources that sustain our lifeline systems, the world would come to a standstill. How many of us have the knowledge to grow our own food, construct shelters, create tools, and set up the essential systems necessary for our survival?

When the Black Death reigned supreme in the 14th century, it killed between 30 and 50 percent of Europe’s population. Technologically speaking, the continent’s technology was primitive compared to that of today, but it survived and recovered. Had the bubonic plague been more lethal, say wiping out 75 percent of Europeans, would a recovery be doable, and would the large parts of Europe be open to an Ottoman invasion? At the time, European literacy rates were extremely low, and if most of the literate population, those who could operate technology, and the administrators running national, regional, and local governments perished, the setback could have lasted decades, and much of our accumulated knowledge could have been permanently lost in a new Dark Age.

The COVID pandemic was not the Black Death, but if we suddenly had a complete breakdown in technology while dealing with a lethal virus, it would be a nightmare. Diseases introduced by Europeans onto the inhabitants of the Americas led to the destruction of great civilizations – the Aztecs and the Incas; and the complete extinction and serious decimation of First Nations who developed their own distinct languages, technology, culture, ways of governing themselves, law and order, and a variety of elements that guided their societies. Sadly, so much has been lost, and the medicines and treatments they relied upon were useless against these imported medical threats.

In the film Black Robe, Jesuit missionaries from France visited far too many First Nations communities to convert them to Christianity in what became Quebec, leading to vast death tolls and empty villages. The Polynesian peoples of the South Pacific experienced similar devastations when missionaries, whalers, and explorers brought diseases to these people, causing great suffering and countless tears. Some Polynesian communities barely survived. The Hawaiian people know full well just how lethal European diseases were to them, as they are now a minority community on their own islands. Many of the remaining Tribal Peoples in the world, especially those in the Amazon River Valley who have not been contacted, could easily be wiped out should a European disease run wild.

We are already losing many languages and dialects, which is a tragedy, similar to the extinction of plant and animal species that have not been catalogued due to deforestation. The cultures of peoples who lived undisturbed for thousands of years are disappearing. Wade Davis has written about this ongoing phenomenon, having witnessed it firsthand. Obviously, we should mourn these losses, but it should spur us into action to preserve what remains, repair the damage where we can, and question actions that have led to such tremendous tragedies.

‘The COVID pandemic was not the Black Death, but if we suddenly had a complete breakdown in technology while dealing with a lethal virus, it would be a nightmare.’

The late naturalist and conservationist E.O. Wilson was alarmed by the ongoing destruction of global and regional ecosystems and their biodiversity. His specialty was the study of ants, but Wilson, along with Sir David Attenborough and the recently passed Jane Goodall, became a voice for the protection of the natural world as a key to humanity’s survival. Wilson and like-minded allies called for 50 percent of our planet’s land mass and marine ecosystems to be designated as wilderness areas to protect the creatures inhabiting them. For these environmentalists, the survival of life on Earth is paramount. They are fully cognizant of how rampant development, fueled by more efficient technology, is causing climate change and dramatically changing the natural world.

This column began with my experience of being temporarily cut off from the internet, and it concludes with a plea for us to take serious action to protect the environment. I could have written this piece by hand on paper, but without the communications system you are reading it on, its distribution would be slow and spotty at best, and copies could not be made, save by hand or via outdated printing systems.

We know what it was like to live in a society where all books and documents were written by hand. It is thanks to Johannes Gutenberg that we have the movable-type printing press. This invention revolutionized the world.

Save for a few societies, we are dependent upon sophisticated technology and could not live without it. We would be lost in the short term and in dire straits in the long term. The nightmare of having to once again fend for our survival on a rudimentary basis is frightening. In his television series, James Burke illustrated how we willingly accept the Faustian bargain of living in a technology-driven world, and asked fundamental questions about where technology is taking us and whether we can control its development and future applications.

We are already facing questions of “Have we gone too far?” “Should we modernize to the point of having machines displace workers,” and if it is still possible, “Should we suspend technological development and rethink the way we live?” Unfortunately, the forces driving progress are beyond our control, no matter what steps we take. The rapid and unregulated development of artificial intelligence is a prime example. The genie has left the bottle, and Elon Musk is now speculating that working for a living may be optional in the immediate future. How we deal with AI is a significant challenge – will we pause or slow down its development before the changes plunge us into the next phase?

Have we, as a species, done a good job of managing technological change and ushering in new technologies? That debate is ongoing, and Luddite solutions are not a solution. The combined technologies that successfully permitted us to launch a probe to retrieve rock samples from a distant asteroid and send them back to Earth, also allow us to launch missiles armed with nuclear weapons to strike our cities and kill millions of people. Burke highlighted this in the Connections episode Eat, drink, and be merry.

‘… Carl Sagan discussed the possibility of civilizations evolving to a point where they can harness and control technology and escape the conflicts that would see these technologies used to wipe themselves out.’

In his Cosmos series, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, Carl Sagan discussed the possibility of civilizations evolving to a point where they can harness and control technology and escape the conflicts that would see these technologies used to wipe themselves out. A formula had been developed to extrapolate how many civilizations could escape the danger zone posed by technology, not only to master it and explore their own solar systems but also to reach out into the stars. Is humanity capable of grappling with the global challenges impacting all forms of life and surviving to enjoy a long-term future? The jury is still out, and if the science is correct, it may already be too late based on the environmental destruction we have already caused and continue to inflict daily.

Feature image: Junior Teixeira – Pexels

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Irwin Rapoport is a freelance journalist and community advocate from Westmount with bachelor’s degrees in History and Political Science from Concordia University. He writes extensively on local politics, education, and environmental issues, and promotes informed public discourse and local democracy through his writing and activism.