The Indians would cut the telegraph lines--no calls for help out, and no communications in--the town and its people were completely cut off.
The very next scene would be the slaughter of everyone in the town including a bunch getting scalped.
How have things changed in the 21st century?
Not so much so, as the New York Times reports today on the constant threats to our underground Internet lines being cut--with 16 cuts to the lines in the San Francisco Bay area alone in the last year.
Similarly just a couple of weeks ago, the media was reporting about the U.S. being worried about Russian subs cutting the undersea Internet cables.
But isn't the Internet built like a spiders's web (i.e. the World Wide Web) with redundant routes so that it can withstand even a nuclear attack?
Apparently, if you take out key Internet Exchange Points (IXP) or major international cable lines then the Internet can be seriously disrupted.
Similar to the impact of an EMP weapon that fries our electronic circuits...poof no more communications.
If you can cut off our core communications ability--then it's a simple strategy of divide and conquer.
Divided we are weak and can't communicate and organize ourselves to either know what's going on or to effectively respond.
Like sitting ducks in the Old West surrounded and cut off--it was a slaughter.
This is why it is so critical that we not only build redundancy in the cable lines, but that we create alternatives like satellite Internet or Google's Project Loon for balloon Internet access.
It's not just the military, law enforcement, and emergency management not that needs to be able to communicate--we all do!
With excellent communications, we can unify ourselves and we are strong--but if we are left in the dark, then divided we fall. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
