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The end of the world (as we know it)

Well the past few days have been exciting, some might say horrifying.

As a world that has become increasingly reliant on technology, the end of last week was a sobering reminder that when such modern tech fails, the effects can be devastating.

First up was the crash of Microsoft's cloud-based services such as Outlook, Office 356, Teams and a raft of other services.

All over the world people were left twiddling their thumbs as they watched this essential collaboration tech crash and burn. Even something as simple as sending an email to a colleague or client became an impossibility. In fact I even read reports that some companies had resorted to using fax machines to get urgent communications delivered.

The other tech-disaster was the FAA's air traffic control (ATC) system which suffered a similar fate.

Aircraft across the entire continental USA were grounded due to a communications problem that affected the ATC and rendered it incapable of accurately tracking movements.

Speculation ran rife that it was more than just coincidence that this melt-down occured just days after the roll-out of new AI-based traffic management software.

It's also worth remembering that until very recently, much of the ATC was built on systems that relied on floppy disk-based hardware.

The official line from the US White House was that the issue was caused by a "weak link" in the comms network on which the ATC was built. Apparently there were a few old copper-based data links using very outdated switches and those devices were incapable of keeping up with the flow of data -- hence the loss of reliable comms.

The solution, we're told, was to replace this aged hardware with modern IP switches that were able to sustain the levels of throughput required.

Officials were very quick to point out that the FAA had been lobbying for funding to totally upgrade its systems for many years but that funding had been withheld, resulting in the fiasco which unfolded.

Personally, I tend to wonder if we've not seen the end of ATC woes in the USA. As a somewhat seasoned IT professional, I know full well the perils of fixing something that isn't broken. I've seen many long-running systems that simply crumbled into dust when something was changed because of undocumented dependencies and a codebase that, after many years of ad-hoc maintenance, was little more than a bowl of spaghetti.

The real takeaway from last week however, is that the more we rely on technology, the more we become vulnerable when that tech fails, for whatever reason.

We've all seen the chaos that unfolds when the system which handles electronic transactions fails. Trolleys of food abandoned in supermarket checkout queues, people who've just filled their tanks left unable to pay and some businesses even closing their doors completely until such systems come back up.

With the rapid move to AI I suspect things will only get worse.

Not only do we run the risk of relying on poorly understood vibe-coded software but we also become dependent on chatbots, LLMs and AI agents to perform a multitude of tasks that become an essential part of many systems.

Perhaps it's time we all performed an audit of our reliance on such hi-technology and made sure that we have contingencies in place to mitigate the effects of any widespread or protracted failures.

Keep $100 in cash in your wallet, have a backup email account, maybe an emergency account with a different bank, a solar-rechargable power-bank, a few books to read, etc.

We all know the wisdom of keeping a few bottles of fresh water and a box of canned food in the cupboard for emergencies but don't forget some tech backup as well because odds are that you're going to need it.

Carpe Diem folks!

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