[Avodah] YT Sheini Shell Golah and the Internet

[Ilana Sober Elzufon]

>
> RRW: Given today's comunications the entire world is notifiable virtually
> instantly. [Exempt RH because on YT internet or phone is probably not
> shayyach]


In ancient times, one could notify those at a distance quite quickly by
lighting fires on hilltops. However, this system was subverted by "hackers"
who lit decoy fires.

I don't know if modern communications are quite as foolproof and reliable as
we think they are. We may feel that distances have contracted remarkably
over the past century, but they still exist and unfortunately a natural or
manmade disaster or even a massive technical glitch or computer virus could
reinstate them very quickly.

I'm sure many on this list recall the several-days-long blackout about 6-7
years ago in the eastern US and in Ontario. I remember suddenly discovering
that six flights is a long way up to my apartment, that meat and dairy
products spoil if left out for a day or two, that it gets really dark at
night, and other basic truths about the world that we have masked but not
abolished. The internet and phones haven't made the world smaller; they've
only made it FEEL smaller and that's not as reliable as it seems.

- Ilana
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