Interesting article. However I have significant doubts about its accuracy.
I purchased my first computer in ~1978 - a Radio Shack Tandy Model I. By 1981 I was using my Tandy to connect to CIS - an online network offered to Radio Shack enthusiasts like myself - where I used an automated program to login - grab message headers I was following - log off and write responses - and then use the automated system to send my replies. This was necessary because Compuserve charged by the minute - and it was quite expensive for a young attorney such as myself.
I primarily used CIS to correspond with authors of programming books I was studying - usually in the early morning hours (when I should have been sleeping because I had early court appearances!) ... but it was great fun.
And, although it was many years ago, I am very confident it was during my compuserve years (1981-1990) that I learned all about ARAPNET and how there was an ongoing effort to design a stable network that included England and our NATO allies that would survive another world war.
Reading this article caused me to perform my own search to help jog my memory. I was surprised how difficult it was to find anything about Compuserve; CIS; or references to early 1980s online services. I did, however come across this article that surely seems to refute much of the take of the OP article:
Was the Internet designed to survive a nuclear attack?
In my opinion this is the wrong question. The internet requires electricity. I think the question should be, "Is the power grid hardened against high altitude nuclear EMP?" My limited understanding is that it might take 2 or 3 HANEs to destroy the power grid of North America. Similar for the EU. When I was in the military I maintained an HF system for communicating with POTUS as it was expected all the satellites would be rendered useless by HANEs EMP. That system has since been deprecated and replaced with something else due to all the original architects existing no more.
Either way it does not even require taking out every substation. Taking out a handful of key substations is sufficient to make the grid go dark and the US has acknowledged a weakness in the supply chain for large transformers currently only produced in China.
How's everyone's Morse code skills? I'll be on 27.585 Mhz LSB which I annexed in the 1970's and monitoring 27.185 Mhz AM.
I purchased my first computer in ~1978 - a Radio Shack Tandy Model I. By 1981 I was using my Tandy to connect to CIS - an online network offered to Radio Shack enthusiasts like myself - where I used an automated program to login - grab message headers I was following - log off and write responses - and then use the automated system to send my replies. This was necessary because Compuserve charged by the minute - and it was quite expensive for a young attorney such as myself.
I primarily used CIS to correspond with authors of programming books I was studying - usually in the early morning hours (when I should have been sleeping because I had early court appearances!) ... but it was great fun.
And, although it was many years ago, I am very confident it was during my compuserve years (1981-1990) that I learned all about ARAPNET and how there was an ongoing effort to design a stable network that included England and our NATO allies that would survive another world war.
Reading this article caused me to perform my own search to help jog my memory. I was surprised how difficult it was to find anything about Compuserve; CIS; or references to early 1980s online services. I did, however come across this article that surely seems to refute much of the take of the OP article:
https://www.myscience.uk/news/wire/commentary_how_britain_go...
As an aside, I did finally locate a reference to Compuserve/CIS - good ole wikipedia came through again:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompuServe
What an enjoyable time down memory lane this post has been for me!
In my opinion this is the wrong question. The internet requires electricity. I think the question should be, "Is the power grid hardened against high altitude nuclear EMP?" My limited understanding is that it might take 2 or 3 HANEs to destroy the power grid of North America. Similar for the EU. When I was in the military I maintained an HF system for communicating with POTUS as it was expected all the satellites would be rendered useless by HANEs EMP. That system has since been deprecated and replaced with something else due to all the original architects existing no more.
Either way it does not even require taking out every substation. Taking out a handful of key substations is sufficient to make the grid go dark and the US has acknowledged a weakness in the supply chain for large transformers currently only produced in China.
How's everyone's Morse code skills? I'll be on 27.585 Mhz LSB which I annexed in the 1970's and monitoring 27.185 Mhz AM.