Hypothetically speaking...

Cut underwater cables

Yes, but they don't cache everything forever, so sometimes even bigger DNS have to fall back to one of the root DNS.

that dude is doing some sick ass yoga on that smartphone, yo

a solar flare or a nuke

But if all root DNS servers fail, it would be a global event and many backup DNS servers will be launched. The ISPs will have their own backup DNS servers.

a shit ton of strong EM pulses across the world at the same time

Strong enough to damage circuitry

similarly a bunch of nukes in the atmosphere would also work, but with obvious side effects

Why do you think they are so hard to take down (yes, people are trying, from time to time)?
The root DNS really are the ISPs backup servers. Local DNS servers (like ISPs, Google, etc) only cache a certain amount of domain name information for a certain time before they need to contact the root nameservers.
There really isn't another magical place where all thet info is stored.

Require people to buy and configure a modem with 8 or so settings, on a cli. Kept most of them of the internet with dialup.

Damn... That image really makes me think

Implement mandatory DNSSEC and kill the root signing key

People would notice if the root DNS servers went down or were hacked, and people would instantly create new backups of the root servers. If someone hacked the root DNS servers, people would notice because ICANN has to propose changes to the root file and the US government has to authorize those changes to the root file

>The root zone file is a small (about 2MB) data set[37] whose publication is the primary purpose of root name servers.
>The contents of the root zone file is a list of names and numeric IP addresses of the authoritative DNS servers for all top-level domains (TLDs) such as com, org, edu, and the country code top-level domains. As of July 2015, the root zone consisted of 1058 TLDs.

Here you go: iana.org/domains/root/files
All these files are backed up, so if anyone took down DNS servers, you could just grab your own copy.

>take down the internet in an entire country or maybe even worldwide
A few bars of C-4 at Facebook HQ

Why? What have you got in mind? What do you want to achieve?
>inb4 i wanna woke people senpai

normies getting btfo of the internet would be hilarious
are we witnessing some kind of neo e-terrorism?
I don't know guys...

Is it weird for me to kind of wish this would happen?
To go back in development to the era of flip phones and not being online/involved with social media 24/7?

Cheburnetvneeds to be done ahahahahahah

bump faggots, disillusioned Jow Forums idiots/autists trying to take down the interwebs is what's coming, what variety of "terrorists" should we call them?

cont.
this will be the next digital "revolution" , a bunch of user working to take down the international internet or whatever, they spent their whole lives in it and they decided that it's all a huge botnet

> free the normies from their social media/botnet induced sleep?
Lots and lots of CRISPR.

What do you care that they enslaved themselves to botnets?

You can learn to profit from this.

If it weren't social media, it'd be something else.

there must be some way to wake up the normies, we must cut off their dopamine bing bing wahoo social media shit,

You're exaggerating, tho. When was the last time you actually socialised with normies? They don't spend as much time on social media as you think.

At least not in non-Western countries.

Well it does feel that way though. People around me nowadays seem distant and constantly occupied, interpersonal relationships discardable. It's as if connecting with the person physically close to you has lost a lot of it's value over the years and it just seems really sad. Perhaps it's just my unconscious wish to connect with the people close to me that makes me project my inability to do so on the availability of perceived interpersonal closeness thanks to social media, but even if this is the reason it doesn't change the fact that I wish for a less advanced world - it might even sound foolish but the times before even cellphones or television seem like an interesting world to live in.

I don't want to live surrounded by "fellow" bots, we must crash the botnet, the normie is dumb, we must force the normie out of the comfort zone, we have to crash the internet - governments are just going to to deeper into the botnet for control proposes, the revolutionary of the future will be anti internet, it doesn't matter if it is left of right, the total control of information must be fought against, yes, even if that means losing your internet