Virtual Shock

So, yesterday's problems with the internet were felt by a larger portion of the world population than just little old me. It seems an earthquake has done the virtual damage (though little actual physical damage, it seems).

This worries me. Apparently we're living on the brink of a drop and we're not even aware of it. It took just a couple of cables being knocked out for many markets to suffer and many people to not be able to work at optimum efficiency. What happens if three cables are knocked out? Or if some group decides that this is perfect opportunity to do some mischief?

And it isn't just in the virtual world that we're looking at these types of problems. Also in the physical world capacity and use are coming far too close together, for instance in raw material transport (with transport often serving as warehouses). The reason is obvious. The closer your use is to your capacity, the less excess capacity is wasted, which in turn is perfectly logical if you're trying to operate with the lowest costs possible. Of course, that only works there isn't a sudden drop in capacity.

This will shake the telecom companies awake, but will it do the same in other fields? I doubt it and it isn't really in the telecom areas that we need to worry most. Again, I ask, where is the redundancy?