What if the Machine Stopped

Recently a major undersea cable failure in the Mediterranean brought down Internet services in much of Asia, the Middle East and northern Africa. What if the failure was permanent? Would civilization as we know it come to a grinding halt if the Internet stopped working? Check out Lynn Greiner's Networkworld article, What if the Internet went down...and didn't come back up? Civilization, no. But "the business world would come to an end until they completely rebuilt their business model." So would law school student legal research! [JH]