What If We Had To Print The Entire Internet

you get a notification on your phone saying that the internet will cease to exist in seven days you toss your gadget aside and continue watching tv suddenly you see a breaking news notification pop up and the news presenter repeats what you've just read in the message the channel broadcasts live footage of people panicking in the streets and losing their minds you look out of the window of your apartment and see people running around carrying their phones and laptops you go down and try to avoid the chaos by standing in an alleyway behind you someone is mindlessly walking around muttering no more internet over and over you get a call from an unknown number telling you that you have to meet someone in an unknown location you open the map on your phone and go there by car from the outside it seems to be an abandoned building but from the inside it's a high-tech facility with scientists in hazmat suits and lab coats you've made it just in time for the briefing a scientist with gray hair walks into the projector room and begins his presentation he explains that these days there are more than 4 billion people using the internet and there's no way to stop the world wide web from crashing there are more than 74 zettabytes of data online now a zettabyte is a trillion gigabytes which is a lot of zeros a word document for a gigabyte of data has around 65 000 pages so for 74 trillion gigabytes that's far too many zeros for me to say it in one breath but it's around four million eight hundred and ten thousand times 1021 pages a sheet of a4 paper is 0.004 inches thick for every gigabyte we'll have 22 feet of stacked paper everyone zones out halfway through the lecture but the lab coat people begin working immediately you get assigned to help print out the internet you take your place in the assembly line along with another hundred people day one it's your first day and you're handling a printing press the entire complex is filled with printers people are constantly moving back and forth bringing in paper from trucks you start off by printing out everything related to health then you move on to other crucial documents you don't have time to read anything you also have to make sure that one document has around 8 000 words you work from morning till evening then the night shift takes over you're only allowed a lunch break a total of 20 minutes of stretching and a visit to the bathroom everyone is working mechanically the news program in the background shows countries all over the world doing their part of the work at the opposite end of the facility there are other teams they download videos and audio files after your shift is over the night staff comes in you clock out and head home you realize that during this day all the teams around the globe have covered no more than one percent of the information feeling demotivated you look around it's been prohibited to create new content unless it's extremely urgent each day can produce so much information that there won't be time to download it day two you're back at the assembly line you didn't sleep well last night and can't concentrate everyone else around you didn't have a good night's sleep either right before lunch some people pass out in their working places and get treated right away there are many other people around on standby ready to take over you print out the rest of the most important documents then you move on to the second tier data like articles blogs and so on your shift has been extended by another two hours you go home exhausted and totally unprepared for the next day day three you arrive at work to see a whole new complex built next door they've apparently built it overnight you've been assigned to the new building your task is to print more articles on paper your shift has been expanded by another hour you and everyone else are too tired to do anything and can barely keep your eyes open just a few days are left but only 15 percent of the internet has been printed they're setting up yet another building with even more printers it's close to night time and you're still working finally the night crew comes in and takes over but they don't let you leave you've been told to stay in a community hall this way you can save time by not commuting to work you're escorted to the hall you're going to share with a hundred other people you try to sleep but you can't you toss and turn but your eyes remain wide open day four a bell wakes you up it's time for a quick breakfast one by one people from the night shift head to their community halls 20 minutes later you're back at the assembly line with a mere three days left they're pushing you even more you look outside and see that even more buildings have sprung out of nowhere trucks filled with paper are driving back and forth causing traffic jams an underground bunker has been constructed in the sahara desert it stretches for miles and is large enough to store all the documents and records the trucks carry a few tons of paper each then planes transport this precious cargo to the sahara desert more and more people can't handle it and start to fall asleep while standing up the production slows down and an emergency bell rings so that more people can take over but there isn't enough personnel many people are improvising and multitasking the entire system is out of control if the production stops for even half an hour tons of information won't be printed out you head to the community hall to have some rest you see more recruits arrive there are thousands of people working at the facility now day five you head back to the assembly line and continue printing but no one is in the mood the production is slower than it should be even though there are only two days left the news shows that people in the streets are still panicking many of them are filming themselves but it's useless since it won't be archived with the whole world working double time since day one around 70 percent of the internet has been printed but people are running out of paper paper manufacturers can't keep up with the demand by the final day there may not be any paper left day six you feel tremendous pressure everyone is nervous people make mistakes more and more often which slows the process down since the printing machines have been working non-stop for six days many of them have broken down and got replaced day seven this is it only several hours are left you didn't sleep at all last night in fact the whole world was awake waiting for the countdown to begin all the important stuff has been printed all that's left is more trivial things and still even they shouldn't go to waste everyone including the night crew is working double time paper production companies have found a way to produce more paper just in time 12 hours left your eyes are closing your body is weak the only thing you crave is your bed you're hungry and your head feels heavy the video and audio teams have officially finished downloading and backing up everything only a few countries still print out the information one hour left you're mechanically clicking print adjusting the word count and fixing the margins you've been doing it for such a long time that now you can do it with your eyes closed but you jolt up every now and then and try to focus on your work the whole world tunes in for the end of the internet only 0.5 percent of data remains unprinted but you're minutes away from the internet shutdown three two one and the internet officially doesn't exist anymore instead of causing chaos all over the place people just quietly stand in the streets they seem to have accepted the situation phones are now only used for calling texting and doing some basic stuff if anyone wants information they go to libraries and bookstores within the first seven days the world's economy plummets companies have to find ways to work without the internet the banking system has collapsed since everyone has withdrawn their money from their accounts no more social media news and hashtags for possibly the most intense moment in history you breathe out and go back home to the world's first day without the internet

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 886,093

Keywords: bright side, brightside, what if, world without the internet, what if the internet disappeared, Earth without the internet, what if there was no internet, what would happen if, life with no internet, no more internet, what if the internet collapsed, online, offline, what if the internet went down, no service, Internet’s down, printed press, print out Internet, save internet, print website

Id: ASjG4pJ_1lE

Length: 8min 57sec (537 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 30 2021