Could engineers survive in a Web-less world?

Marshall McLuhan coined the term "global village" a few decades before the Internet arrived, but he knew that mankind's thirst for advanced means of communication would eventually bring people closer together. Now that engineers have become dependent upon the "global village" for their everyday work, what would happen if, by some odd twist of fate, the Internet ceased to exist? Could engineers still get their jobs done effectively?

Charles Spencer, design engineer for Sac-Tec Labs, has been an engineer for 50 years and has witnessed many technological changes that have affected the way engineers work. With most major advancements, changes occur, but not everyone is always quick to jump on the bandwagon. Spencer recalls, "When the 'net came about, I certainly had doubts about whether it was worth spending all that time and money, setting everyone up with a PC workstation, but at the time it was tough to look at the big picture."

Although skeptical about the Internet initially, Spencer, like many others, has become highly dependent on it for his daily work. Spencer feels, "It's a godsend for gathering information: If the Web didn't exist, the world of engineering would be a whole lot different."

It is tough to imagine what kind of apocalyptic event could cause the Internet to no longer exist, but like most great things, you must imagine life without them in order to fully recognize their benefits.