Without networks, there would be utter chaos; almost every form of technology would be as unstable, unreliable, and just about unusable to society. Our everyday interactions would be disrupted, Anna Nagurney mentions transportation as a type of network, which in itself faces many issues. As we all know, New York City subway lines are infamous when it comes to subway delays due to signal errors- meaning that there is no communication between the network and the actual subway itself. Planes would not be able to take off or land if air traffic control could not track the actual plan with a broken network. “We have nodes, we have links… We have transportation networks… Manufacturing networks… Communication network… and Energy networks where the flows could be oil, water, electricity, etc..” Anna Nagurney, The Science-Spanning Disciplines.
Internet, a major communication network, opens the door to a virtual hub of endless information and communication which would otherwise be inaccessible to the everyday person. If a link is broken, we cannot connect to a specific website. But, when the network is down, the internet is inaccessible- the flow, my router, is disrupted until that specific problem is taken care of by specialists. Albert-Laszlo Barabasi states, “Even those that understand the importance of networks are often driven by the need for quick fixes, expecting solutions overnight.” Which is true, when the internet is down, we expect it to be back up and running in minutes. When a major website or app is down, specialists are called on to fix the cause of the issue almost instantly. The issue with these networks is that they are not fully secure and they are prone to attacks that disrupt the network, causing them to, lack a better term, ‘go down’. Sometimes those attacks last for hours, sometimes days rendering the flow, (website), useless until the problem is fixed.
1 comments
Very true, we would be lost without networks today. Nagurney’s talk highlights all of the non-digital networks that exist in order to keep the digital networks active which is really important and a fact that most people forget. Good work!