Answer: Probably not – but only in as much as there won’t be an information silence for there is always the Google cache… but as Wikipedia reminds us that Marconi died…
…in Rome in 1937 at age 63 following a series of heart attacks, and Italy held a state funeral for him. As a tribute, all radio stations throughout the world observed two minutes of silence.
…and radioastronomers know this as probably the last time ever that the radio spectrum was quieted and free from (intentional) human activity; so sometimes I wonder what it would take to create a temporary dark age.
It might be possible to crash big chunks of the internet if you tried really hard (hat tip to the fabulous 1980s SF book ORA:CLE by Kevin O’Donnell – it’s a must-read for security geeks of a certain age) but frankly the technology has overtaken risk of total blackout.
Big chunks of the net can be throttled, sure, but the whole thing? Not easily. Could we take out a significant resource, though? Yes, that’s still possible, especially electively. It’s just a matter of picking your targets.
So I’ll betcha that a bunch of schoolkids tomorrow night are going to be unpleasantly surprised when their homework has a thursday deadline…
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