VMS DECwindows Motif 1.0 was released in August 1991; it is difficult for me to comprehend that was 35(!) years ago. I still have a mouse pad from the release party.
This page: https://tf.nist.gov/tf-cgi/servers.cgi shows that NIST has > 16 NTP servers on IPv4, of those, 5 are in Boulder and were affected by the power failure. The rest were fine.
However, most entities should not be using these top-level servers anyway, so this should have been a problem for exactly nobody.
IMHO, "tech optimism" reached its peak in 1969 when Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the Moon.
We watched them walk on the Moon on live TV.
After seeing them perform that impossible feat, it seemed like we could use technology to do anything.
As far as the Digital and/or Internet revolutions, the changes have been so fast and widespread that people have not come to terms with them, at least I haven't, and I've been pretty deep into both.
My particular concerns are around atrophy of basic skills (reading, research, writing, etc.,) the authenticity/trustworthiness of "knowledge" obtained from various Internet sources (misinformation, fake news, deep fakes,) and lack of personal contact and interaction in a world where peoples' only connection to others is through a screen (fakebook, instagram, tiktok, etc..)
AI is not going to make any of those any better.
I would not describe my feelings as "dismay" or "fear" but rather of "extreme caution" -- if that makes any sense.
With that said, I'm going to step away from this computer and go play with my dog.
I have taken three of those classes as part of the Online Master of Cybersecurity program. They were all excellent. I can say that the assignments were an important part of the learning experience, for instance the practical experience of attacking weak RSA keys.
I would not let the lack of assignments, tests, and quizzes stop you from trying these if you are interested. At a minimum, they would give you a feeling for what the program/s are like, and possibly encourage you to enroll into the online degree program, which is an exceptional value.
I still have a PDP-11 Programming Card I bought at that Digital retail store. That was an interesting place. As I recall, there also was a AT&T store in that mall where you could buy... telephones.
Maybe it's hard to find these days. However it had the best VT220 emulation I have seen running on X Window System.
I will note that I have not seen a terminal emulator that supports the "double wide" and "double high, double wide" character modes of the VT100. Those giant letters were kinda fun. (<esc>#3, <esc>#4, and <esc>#6 if my memory serves me right.)
Your AS might be blocked by firewall rules. The Wayback Machine can show you the page.