by Louise Wulfe

Created on: February 22, 2009

Computers are so securely implemented into our society that it is difficult to imagine a world without them. We are inundated by technology everywhere we go. What would happen if all the technology we count on so much was gone? Chaos.

At least initially, we would experience an episode of pandemonium. Most of the general population uses computers in one form or another dozens of times each day - digital alarm clocks, cars, and ATM machines. Businesses count on computers to run their daily operations - cash registers, book keeping logs, and communications. Hospitals use advanced computers to perform surgery and tests, not to mention the less complex systems used to keep patient's information organized. All of these functions would be in a suspended state of operation.

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Records are deleted. The stock market crashes. Industries fail - banks, retail stores, grocery stores, entertainment, transportation, etc. Modern vehicles stop dead and will not start again. Riots erupt around the world. Hospitals are overwhelmed by patients. An age of darkness ensues.

The most primitive of instincts, survival, takes over. Food, water, and shelter become first priority. Only after these are supplied can we move on to the next step. People feel the need to protect what assets they have retained. It doesn't matter what achievements we had in the past. The past no longer exists: only the present and future are important.

Crime rates increase to colossal proportions. Past records have been deleted from the computers, and the hard life of law enforcement rises to another level of difficulty. They have to rely on knowledge and experience to discern the innocent from the criminal until each department updates their records by hand. Officers roam the cities and countryside looking for trouble-makers. They ride on horseback and use any older vehicles they can find, cars from a time before computers were implemented into the infrastructure.

Manufacture of the old, gas guzzlers is re-initiated at automotive factories. The automotive transportation industry, cars and large trucks alike, is encouraged to come up with fuel efficient and economically safe vehicles, while the industry's research is pushed back decades. They try and eventually come up with a number of ideas that will work decently. Air travel suffers greatly, causing railroad terminals and ship yards to amass an unanticipated amount of traffic.

There

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