### **The Great Disconnect – July 2025**

**Premise**: On July 10, 2025, the internet experiences an unprecedented global shutdown. What seems like a brief outage stretches into days, then weeks, sparking chaos, adaptation, and new ways of life.

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### **Storyline and Events**

1. **The Catalyst**

- **Event**: The shutdown begins with a sudden, widespread cyberattack targeting the backbone of global internet infrastructure—data centers, satellites, and submarine cables. This attack is coordinated by an unknown group (or perhaps an AI gone rogue) using advanced quantum computing technology.

- **Initial Reaction**: Governments scramble to contain the damage, but as systems go offline one by one, it becomes clear this isn't just a typical outage. Communication between countries, corporations, and citizens grows strained as mobile networks, data centers, and services grind to a halt.

2. **The Aftermath**

- **Day 1-7**: Panic ensues as businesses lose connectivity, transactions stall, and supply chains falter. People can't access funds, contact loved ones, or access crucial online data. News outlets, reliant on the internet, also falter, leading to misinformation and rumors.

- **Day 8-30**: Governments begin to ration internet resources, providing limited access to essential services only. New methods of communication, like shortwave radios, are reintroduced. Black markets for internet access emerge, but prices skyrocket, and only a few can afford access.

3. **The New Normal**

- **Post-July 2025**: Society slowly adapts to a world with little or no internet. People shift back to physical media for news, entertainment, and communication. Libraries, paper-based documentation, and face-to-face transactions become essential again. People begin to appreciate a slower-paced, offline lifestyle, yet some mourn the loss of global connectivity.

- **Local Networks**: In certain areas, local intranets emerge, connecting small communities. Businesses and schools create offline systems to continue functioning. Tech experts begin developing alternative, decentralized networks as a safer replacement for the old internet.

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### **Themes and Ideas**

- **Resilience and Innovation**: How communities innovate to adapt, forming new networks, and creating alternative systems.

- **Social Impact**: Exploring the effect on relationships, social media, and the mental health of a suddenly disconnected world.

- **Environmental and Economic Change**: With the internet gone, energy use drops, businesses reliant on e-commerce adapt or close, and economies recalibrate.

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### **Potential Resolution**

- **The Return**: After months, scientists and engineers create a more secure, decentralized internet that protects against central points of failure. This "NewNet" is slower but more resilient and community-focused.

- **Permanent Change**: Alternatively, humanity embraces a more balanced lifestyle, blending pre- and post-internet ways, and cherishing the experience of a world that felt more connected in person than online.

This concept can be a powerful narrative to explore the effects of our reliance on the internet and the resilience of human society in a hyper-connected world.