uniladtech homepage
  • News
    • Tech News
    • AI
  • Gadgets
    • Apple
    • iPhone
  • Gaming
    • Playstation
    • Xbox
  • Science
    • News
    • Space
  • Streaming
    • Netflix
  • Vehicles
    • Car News
  • Social Media
    • WhatsApp
    • YouTube
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Archive
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
TikTok
Snapchat
WhatsApp
Submit Your Content
How long the internet would be usable if all humans disappeared

Home> News

Published 16:23 23 Feb 2024 GMT

How long the internet would be usable if all humans disappeared

Some predict days, some predict hours.

Rebekah Jordan

Rebekah Jordan

google discoverFollow us on Google Discover
Featured Image Credit: Marco VDM/Bulgac/Getty Images
Science

Advert

Advert

Advert

People have been questioning how long the internet would be usable if there were no more humans around.

After all, there'd be no power, let alone anyone regulating or maintaining the internet.

So how long would it last?

The thread on Stack Exchange opened up the debate.

Advert

The primary concern that respondents mentioned was the availability of power, to which the user adaliabooks expected the internet to last 'days at best.'

Their comment read: 'While I'm not sure about the infrastructure of the internet itself (which I think would probably last a little bit longer before catastrophic failure) the more pressing issue would be power.

Some predict the internet would last a couple of days if humans disappeared / Marco VDM/Getty Images
Some predict the internet would last a couple of days if humans disappeared / Marco VDM/Getty Images

'Without people running the power plants and managing the grids around the world the electricity would soon go out.'

To a degree, this makes sense as without humans, there's no electricity, and with no electricity, means no computers.

'So even if the few remaining humans are lucky enough to have a generator or be somewhere the power has lasted longer, most of the internet will have gone offline when the servers died due to lack of power,' adaliabooks added.

In response to their prediction, social media user, minseong, wrote with surprise: 'OH lmao I was expecting it to be like an hour, days is pretty cool.'

However, some argued that the internet's lifespan might be even shorter, expecting it to last no longer than a couple of hours.

Widespread power outages would cause servers to shut down rapidly and any servers without backup power would go down.

According to Stack Exchange user Faheim Arslan: 'Even then, the remaining people won't be able to use the net if they don't have backup or can't help in producing electricity.

Power would be the main problem in maintaining the internet /Bulgac/Getty Images
Power would be the main problem in maintaining the internet /Bulgac/Getty Images

'Those which have backups might work for a year, after which most satellites will fall back to the Earth. So you can say the max is 1 year, if both the servers, medium and the people survive.'

Another comment by pjz explained what would happen in terms of power, networking hardware and software.

For example, electricity would become unreliable, whilst unchecked fires and storms would chip away at the power grid.

'As many people have noted, as soon as the Great Disappearance happens, electricity will start to get spotty,' pjz stated.

However, urban areas may cope slightly better due to underground power lines and more dense grids.

'The Internet is designed for redundancy,' pjz continued.

Bandwidth availability would increase without human usage, so long as a 'defaultless router' can be accessed.

'Failure after that will start by breaking the network off into isolated sections (which can still be used to talk among themselves!), until eventually it's all in so many pieces that it effectively no longer exists.''

So people predict the internet to last anywhere from a couple of hours if humans were to go extinct, what do you think would happen?

Choose your content:

14 hours ago
16 hours ago
18 hours ago
19 hours ago
  • Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
    14 hours ago

    Travelers to pay bonds up to $15,000 to enter the US as new visa rules come into place

    President Trump has tightened the rules around legal immigration

    News
  • Lionel Hahn / Contributor via Getty
    16 hours ago

    Jeff Bezos pays $1,000 every single month to break this California law

    It's something only a handful of people can afford

    News
  • Mat Hayward / Contributor / Getty
    18 hours ago

    Star Trek star is sending out $1 checks to people that donate to this charity on Musk's X money

    The giveaway is linked to Musk’s new payment platform

    News
  • NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty
    19 hours ago

    Anthropic reportedly testing new AI model that poses 'unprecedented' risks

    A quiet leak suggests this could be Anthropic’s most powerful model yet

    News
  • AI predicts disastrous consequences if all artificial intelligence disappeared from the world
  • How much NASA astronauts could be paid for Artemis 2 trip in historic first journey round the Moon
  • Scientist explains exactly how often you should be pooping per week as bowel cancer cases rise
  • How long it would take to travel to mysterious planet where alien life could be hiding 124 light-years away