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> "...in some cases giving their operators electric shocks. Telegraph pylons threw sparks" The real life precursor of exploding starship screens/consoles

kristopolous 3y ago
There was a great radio ecoshock episode about this a couple years ago. Let me see if I can dig it up. https://www.ecoshock.org/2017/03/emp-instant-blackout.html https://www.ecoshock.org/2017/03/emp-instant-blackout.html The guy's journalistic style is certainly on the alarmist side but the scholarship is pretty solid and unusually expansive. From the text: "Because most utilities have not protected their giant transformers, and there are no replacements, the grid would stay down for at least a year, or a decade, or forever. There are ways to protect the system, but a captured Washington regulation system has not pushed for these simple steps. A hostile power aside, our expert guest tells us an EMP hit is “inevitable” within the time of those living now, because the Sun can also crash our electrical systems world-wide. A large solar storm, big enough to do it, was seen in 1859. It’s called the Carrington Event. If part of the Sun blows our way, all satellites are knocked out. The wires of our electric system act like antennae, receiving the deadly pulse." I doubt the doomsayer timetable but the industrial capacity and delivery concern is absolutely valid. If this actually happened, I think community solar would be choked as it gets ramped up everywhere at once and some neighborhoods would have power centers to go charge lithium ion portable power packs as the overall grids become decentralized. Shelf-stable, non-refrigerated food would become the norm and people would just make do with less electricity. We'd go back to a cash economy and things like night time entertainment that relied on sound systems and electric lights would become almost non-existent. Without street lights, nighttime in general would be dramatically quieter The real problem would be people who have to use battery powered medical devices who don't have convenient ways to charge. But yes, huge problem regardless
- lazide 3y ago
  Return of the gas lamps! Seriously though. It wouldn’t be hard to make a dynamo and some incandescent (or carbon arc!) lights with material already available in most metropolises. The bars would get prioritized, hah.

kristopolous 3y ago

There was a great radio ecoshock episode about this a couple years ago. Let me see if I can dig it up. https://www.ecoshock.org/2017/03/emp-instant-blackout.html https://www.ecoshock.org/2017/03/emp-instant-blackout.html The guy's journalistic style is certainly on the alarmist side but the scholarship is pretty solid and unusually expansive. From the text: "Because most utilities have not protected their giant transformers, and there are no replacements, the grid would stay down for at least a year, or a decade, or forever. There are ways to protect the system, but a captured Washington regulation system has not pushed for these simple steps. A hostile power aside, our expert guest tells us an EMP hit is “inevitable” within the time of those living now, because the Sun can also crash our electrical systems world-wide. A large solar storm, big enough to do it, was seen in 1859. It’s called the Carrington Event. If part of the Sun blows our way, all satellites are knocked out. The wires of our electric system act like antennae, receiving the deadly pulse." I doubt the doomsayer timetable but the industrial capacity and delivery concern is absolutely valid. If this actually happened, I think community solar would be choked as it gets ramped up everywhere at once and some neighborhoods would have power centers to go charge lithium ion portable power packs as the overall grids become decentralized. Shelf-stable, non-refrigerated food would become the norm and people would just make do with less electricity. We'd go back to a cash economy and things like night time entertainment that relied on sound systems and electric lights would become almost non-existent. Without street lights, nighttime in general would be dramatically quieter The real problem would be people who have to use battery powered medical devices who don't have convenient ways to charge. But yes, huge problem regardless

lazide 3y ago
Return of the gas lamps! Seriously though. It wouldn’t be hard to make a dynamo and some incandescent (or carbon arc!) lights with material already available in most metropolises. The bars would get prioritized, hah.