LONDON -- Is everything breaking down?
The question is prompted not just by the floodwaters that have been engulfing British cities in recent weeks, closing the railway system, jamming the roads and bringing the nation's transport to a virtual standstill, but by something more fundamental than the passing excesses of the weather.
The deeper question is whether our societies, having built up an almost total dependence on electronic systems of communication and data processing, can actually handle the consequences when things go wrong, as they often do.
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