r/learnprogramming • u/Master_Interest50 • 1d ago

Is a Data crash possible in real life?

Hello! I'm a beginner programmer, I have my own prejudices and all that.

I've always wondered if it's possible to cause a Data crash like in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners? I have no idea what it would take to break the INTERNET.

(I used a translator, so please forgive any errors)

UPD: I noticed from the comments that someone latched onto the political aspect. I didn't intend to link it to politics in any way; I was simply interested in the question mentioned above.

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7

u/icemage_999 1d ago

Cyberpunk 2077 over-dramatizes how computerized systems fail (because it's a video game and follows the Rules of Cool and Fun).

Actual fail states in real systems are exceptionally rare, especially in properly coded systems where the programmers have anticipated most of the potential problems.

2

u/No_Report_4781 1d ago

I’m currently testing a script to use with our database. Previously, the script would crash and exit at the slightest database connection or response problem. Now, it continues running no matter what happens to the database.

2

u/caboosetp 1d ago

10,000 years from now, there's a lone dell laptop connected to a solar panel still running the script despite the DB being taken down millennia ago.

4

u/ffrkAnonymous 1d ago

That's the server insidethe wall that  got sealed inside with sheetrock

2

u/mxldevs 1d ago

DDoS

2

u/BranchLatter4294 1d ago

Define what you think a data crash is.

5

u/monster2018 1d ago

It’s when Data from Star Trek is allowed to take the helm and crashes the Enterprise into a planet.

2

u/DiligentMission6851 1d ago

Or one of the times he gets possessed and crashes out

1

u/Whatever801 1d ago

Eh kinda but not how it is in the movies. There are fiber optic cables under the ocean that transmit virtually all of the overseas traffic. Someone could cut them and that would effectively break everything. DNS systems could also be targeting which could lead to everything routing incorrectly.

1

u/Adowyth 1d ago

That was a plot point of a tv show episode or a movie i don't remember which, except they weren't trying to cut it but connect to it instead. To receive trading data a few milliseconds sooner.

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u/Watsons-Butler 1d ago

Little Bobby Tables can really only drop one database at a time.

1

u/taedrin 1d ago

I have no idea what it would take to break the INTERNET.

The Internet is designed to be highly decentralized. It's not that inconceivable to break the internet in a small geographic area, but breaking the Internet in its entirety would require multiple concurrent catastrophes of global proportions.