>>13791777I mean, if the industry is still in its abstract and not manifested as a single company, then yes of course. The agricultural industry would go back to non-computer-operated equipment, the automotive industry would go back to carburetors, the retail industry would go back to books.
Would it be the same companies? Probably not. But if there's a need for something, someone's gonna capitalize on it. If the environment changes, then the industry changes with it.
I can't exactly pinpoint an exact application of computers that renders them strictly NECESSARY, but I also don't have that kind of data. Factories would certainly go back to mechanical processes, people would probably have a greater selection of jobs, and it would take more people for a single company to service a whole nation from sheer accounting alone. But I don't see that leading to a crisis like you imply
