What If Every Computer Stopped for 5 Seconds?

On Friday, 19 July 2024, CrowdStrike sent one small update file to the computers that run its security software. It was replaced 78 minutes later. Too late: about 8.5 million Windows computers crashed and got stuck restarting. Airport screens went blue, airlines stopped flights, some US hospitals pushed back surgeries and went back to paper, and Delta alone cancelled about 7,000 flights over five days. And that was less than 1% of Windows computers. So let's play a game, pure imagination: what if every computer on Earth stopped at the same moment, for just five seconds? We count it out, one second at a time. Second one: your phone, the café card machine, the traffic light, and the dozens of hidden computers in your car, your washing machine and your lift. Second two: the 15,000+ planes in the air on a busy day, fly-by-wire (the Airbus A320, flying passengers since 1988), and air traffic control. Second three: the power grid's 50 or 60 beats a second, and the heavy spinning wheels that would hold it steady for a moment. Second four: intensive care machines, and the pacemakers inside millions of people. Second five: you. In 1943, Rossen, Kabat and Anderson found that when blood to the brain stops, people pass out in about six or seven seconds. The computers took on the jobs that can never pause. Stopping would take five seconds. Starting again would take days. Sources TechTarget: CrowdStrike faulty update on 19 July 2024 was live 04:09 to 05:27 UTC (78 minutes); not a cyberattack; fixed by hand in safe mode, machine by machine Microsoft via TechCrunch (20 July 2024): about 8.5 million Windows devices affected, less than one percent of all Windows machines Wikipedia, "2024 Delta Air Lines disruption": about 7,000 flights cancelled over five days Chief Healthcare Executive: US hospitals postponed non-urgent surgeries and went back to paper records during the outage Newshub (2018): flight trackers usually peak around 16,000 planes in the air at once in July/August Airbus, "Fly-by-wire 1980-1987" and Airbus Safety First: the A320 was the first airliner with digital fly-by-wire and a side stick; entered service in 1988 Inside Energy: grid frequency (50/60 Hz) reflects the balance of supply and demand; the inertia of spinning generators buffers changes Pacemaker patent US4503857: a microprocessor that senses the heartbeat and paces when it is too slow Rossen, R., Kabat, H. & Anderson, J. P. (1943), "Acute arrest of cerebral circulation in man", Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry: loss of consciousness after about 6.4 to 6.9 seconds Brain: about 2% of body weight and about 20% of resting energy use This is a thought experiment: every computer stopping at once has never happened. The phone, street, car, grid, hospital-device, ECG, brain and plane drawings are our teaching drawings, not real readings. The 1943 study is shown as a simplified drawing. Painted scenes are illustrations. Photos (Wikimedia Commons) CrowdStrike blue screen at LaGuardia Airport: Smishra1, CC BY-SA 4.0 Dulles Airport during the outage: reivax, CC BY-SA 2.0 Airbus A320 in flight: Jetstar Airways, CC BY-SA 2.0 Airbus A320 cockpit (side stick): Louis from Paris, France, CC BY-SA 2.0 Air traffic controllers at the Washington ARTCC: US Federal Aviation Administration, public domain Pacemaker in hand: Steven Fruitsmaak, CC BY 3.0 Steam turbine rotor: Siemens press picture, CC BY-SA 3.0 Logos: CrowdStrike, Windows, Delta Air Lines and Airbus, used to name the companies discussed. Chapters 0:00 Friday, 19 July 2024: one file 0:19 8.5 million computers crash 0:46 The game: every computer stops for 5 seconds 1:15 Second one: your phone 1:44 The computers you can't see 2:08 Second two: the sky 2:18 Fly-by-wire 2:52 Would the planes fall? 3:18 Second three: the power grid 3:41 The heavy spinning wheels 4:03 Second four: hospitals 4:24 Computers inside people 4:46 Second five: you 5:16 Six seconds 5:27 Your brain never stops 5:46 A second nervous system 6:12 Back to that Friday 6:33 What five seconds would really cost