About a week after the Satellite service was interrupted Jim listened as the manifesto of the group claiming responsibility for hacking the satellites. "Society is on a path of self destruction. In the next twenty years we will lose our sense of purpose and our humanity. Autonomous robots will do all of our jobs and we will waste away in a virtual reality. Autonomous farm equipment can seed our fields, manage crops, harvest crops, drive the trucks from the fields, load the autonomous barges and distribute it. Americans will lose over five million jobs in the first phase. With artificial intelligence help we will become obsolete. At first we will write programs and repair equipment but eventually the computer will build robots equipped to do those jobs as well. Even without self aware killer robots we will destroy ourselves. Future generations will lose all basic skills and rely heavily on artificial intelligence. We are your salvation from becoming mindless and indoctrinated sheep. The point of humanities way of thinking is imperfection and chaos. In order to live we have to risk dying. We will have to deliver our parcels and fight our wars instead of sending drones. We need to learn through experience and not rely on instant information as a substitute for intelligence. We need our lies and deception to sleep better at night. We have hacked your satellites and leveled the playing field.

It is time to stop stripping the planet for rare earth materials to power technology that will bring us to an end. We have thrived for thousands of years by working together and talking to each other person to person rather than through some device. Our devices take the emotions away sharing thoughts that are better kept to yourself. It is easy to be mean or rude when nobody is there to hold you accountable. Digital transactions have made us vulnerable to corruption and theft. Cyber war can bankrupt the richest nations with just a few keystrokes. Our innovations and inventions can no longer be stolen in an instant from across the world. We have reset the clock to a better time in world history. Everyone gets a clean slate, no longer is everything about you available to government agencies spying on you without your knowledge. The world is not ending it has become a better place" The radio had bits and pieces read by the DJ followed by "Authorities are working hard to restore services sorry for the inconvenience". Jim just shook his head. It was like a group of unibombers afraid of an autonomous society. They truly believed they were doing the right thing. People were definitely acting differently even though it was just a short amount of time. People would just have to spread gossip the old fashioned way. The phone companies were busy restoring land line services. Stores were only accepting cash or bartering in some cases. The stock market was a mess. The world was just set back a few decades and it was going to take a while to adjust. The terrorist group was not making demands. They were not holding technology hostage they had accomplished their goals. Social gatherings seemed to be more frequent, churches especially saw an increase in attendance. There were a lot of people especially older generations had regained their purpose and sympathized with the cyber terrorists.

The anti technology movement was gaining momentum. For the third world economies nothing had changed. They continued the same as they had. The richest developed societies took the hardest hit. Seeing people out and about trying to track down something they could have had delivered a few weeks before helped local shops that were on the verge of closing. Luckily that had not upgraded the power grid enough to make it dependent on satellites. Cutting off electricity even for a couple of hours could cause mass hysteria. This was more like a panic attack that would subside in time. Jim liked the technology but at the same time he was enjoying having a reason to see friends he rarely talked to. Some people took to preparing for the worst while others decided to live in the moment. Well at least it wasn't an alien invasion or a world war. Whatever these hackers did they did a good job. It must of took a large effort to completely shut down all of the satellites. Jim tried to stay focused on his garden and chores around the house. Every little beeping noise or vibration from the lawnmower had Jim checking to see if his phone came back on. Less and less as time went on.