What infrastructure systems would realistically fail first in a slow maintenance collapse?
Posted by Spark_Hank@reddit | collapse | View on Reddit | 13 comments
Most collapse discussions focus on sudden events:
wars, blackouts, cyberattacks, supply chain shocks.
But I’ve been thinking more about slow degradation.
Not “everything stops”.
More like:
- repairs take longer
- fewer experienced technicians
- systems become harder to maintain
- strange failures start appearing more often
Especially in infrastructure people normally ignore until it breaks.
What systems do you think would realistically become unstable first?
Water systems?
Electrical substations?
Industrial refrigeration?
Telecom infrastructure?
I’m curious about subtle failures that would initially look like isolated bad luck rather than obvious collapse.
oxero@reddit
At this rate anything relying on code or the internet.
Too many working parts and vulnerabilities and a bunch of wise guys think AI is going to change everything, except people are just vibe coding shit without the knowledge of how anything works past their prompting. I could go on and on about how buggy my software I need to do work has become recently and it's only getting worse year by year. Windows is basically doing the same thing, and websites are becoming more unstable as time goes on.
After that probably the electrical grid and water supplies depending on the area you are at. With all these AI data centers, a lot of utilities are starting to realize they don't need people to survive any longer. Happening by Lake Tahoe residents were basically abandoned by their energy provider and have something like a year to figure out what they are going to do. In Georgia a data center hoovered up 30 million gallons of water during one of the worst droughts in recent history by "accident." It's looking more and more like people just aren't needed by the politicians being brought out to ram through all these approvals, so the collapse is looking more like a structurally engineered job at this point than one of neglect.
zaaaaa@reddit
Oh it seems absolutely purposeful at this point. AI can already competently perform many job functions, especially those with repeatable processes. Already the corporations have no financial reasons to maintain those human lives.
The wealthy are very aware of the state of the situation they created. They're aware that resources will dwindle. They're actively working to kill us off to limit competition for those resources and the power of the crowd against their control.
AI isn't going anywhere, and we should all be competent with the weapons of our enemy. Learn it, use it against them as able, but do assume they're always watching. They are.
Doctalivingston@reddit
I can only imagine vibe-coding is going to lead to a security nightmare at some point.
Turbulent-Beauty@reddit
I’m wondering if customers of a major bank will wake up one day to empty accounts after that vibe-coding security nightmare or AI accidentally deleting all the money.
Tearakan@reddit
It's already happened.
Ezekiel_29_12@reddit
I'm not sure that it will, because AI can also detect bugs. But I suspect that in many nontrivial systems, ideal security is not possible, based on a vague hunch related to mathematical inconmpleteness. There might be an endless arms race of patches and finding new bugs.
IntoTheCommonestAsh@reddit
My fear with vibe coding is we'll reach a point where vibe coding will be known to be precarious, yet purely human-made code is too vulnerable to AI hacking, so you're basically obligated to let some anti-hacking AI modify it, and we eventually reach a point where no human really understands the internet and coding.
IntoTheCommonestAsh@reddit
My fear with vibe coding is we'll reach a point where vibe coding will be known to be precarious, yet purely human-made code is too vulnerable to AI hacking, so you're basically obligated to let some anti-hacking AI modify it, and we eventually reach a point where no human really understands the internet and coding.
Magnesium4YourHead@reddit
Current state of government.
GlockAF@reddit
The Air Traffic Control system in the US is already coming apart, and we’ve been seeing the repercussions of that for a while now in seemingly unconnected crashes, incidents, near-misses, and safety violations.
The system has a fair bit of redundancy built-in by design, but it’s increasingly obvious that when the holes in the swiss cheese line up safety is suffering and it’s only a matter of time until we’re gonna see the multiple, high-body count fatal crashes that traditionally lead to hysterical/ hypocritical Congressional bloviating and the resultant FAA bureaucratic massive over-reaction.
Long-standing technical shortcomings, controller critical staffing shortages (with no end in sight), mandatory-overtime fatigue, a demographic surge of experienced pilots retiring, backfilling those empty seats with under-qualified Post-Covid-Era replacements, very-high-time airframes, scarcity (and under-payment) of experienced A&P mechanics, outsourced major main inspections, complacent/overly-compliant FAA technical oversight of the manufacturers (looking at YOU Boeing), increasingly unpredictable jetstream turbulence, perpetually angry, overcrowded passengers stuffed in like sardines who CANNOT leave their carry-on luggage behind in an evacuation. Take your pick, but it’s really all of the above
Berlynprimal@reddit
Wastewater maintenance. That giant spill in Maryland was the result of a 50+ year old interchange pipe that, realistically, should have been replaced a decade ago.
ennemmjay@reddit
In the US the rail system has already been at this point for decades.
magnetar_industries@reddit
Trash collection will probably be the first thing to go.