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Ridiculous post. Power outages would kill a lot of people if sustained. A Carrington event would devastate modern society.

TZubiri 9mo ago
You mean in hospital contexts? I'm having trouble thinking how power outages can be deadly.
- ceejayoz 9mo ago
  If it's hot/cold, elderly/vulnerable people tend to die pretty quick. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_European_heatwaves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_European_heatwaves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Texas_power_crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Texas_power_crisis You'll get some food poisoning deaths from food that got too warm in fridges. People who rely on home medical equipment like oxygen concentrators. Car crashes in busy intersections that no longer have traffic lights. Fires from candles. etc. etc. etc. Even critical infrastructure eventually craps out. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/science/atomic-clock-late-colorado.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/science/atomic-clock-late...
  - TZubiri 9mo ago
    It feels like a stretch. It reminds me of when people claimed the whatsapp numbers leak put lives at risk because people might use it in countries where it is banned. In another sense, it is similar to arguments against tasers, where they are being evaluated in a vacuum instead of being evaluated against their alternatives. If you compare tasers to guns, or power outages to bombs, then they are safe rather than dangerous.
    - ceejayoz 9mo ago
      > In another sense, it is similar to arguments against tasers, where they are being evaluated in a vacuum instead of being evaluated against their alternatives. If you compare tasers to guns, or power outages to bombs, then they are safe rather than dangerous. Nah, I disagree here. Tasers do indeed offer an alternative to guns. But they allow more force in other situations, where officers would previously have had to deescalate because "just shoot them" wasn't justified. Cops now use a taser where zero force might previously have been used.

TZubiri 9mo ago

You mean in hospital contexts? I'm having trouble thinking how power outages can be deadly.

ceejayoz 9mo ago
If it's hot/cold, elderly/vulnerable people tend to die pretty quick. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_European_heatwaves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_European_heatwaves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Texas_power_crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Texas_power_crisis You'll get some food poisoning deaths from food that got too warm in fridges. People who rely on home medical equipment like oxygen concentrators. Car crashes in busy intersections that no longer have traffic lights. Fires from candles. etc. etc. etc. Even critical infrastructure eventually craps out. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/science/atomic-clock-late-colorado.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/science/atomic-clock-late...
- TZubiri 9mo ago
  It feels like a stretch. It reminds me of when people claimed the whatsapp numbers leak put lives at risk because people might use it in countries where it is banned. In another sense, it is similar to arguments against tasers, where they are being evaluated in a vacuum instead of being evaluated against their alternatives. If you compare tasers to guns, or power outages to bombs, then they are safe rather than dangerous.
  - ceejayoz 9mo ago
    > In another sense, it is similar to arguments against tasers, where they are being evaluated in a vacuum instead of being evaluated against their alternatives. If you compare tasers to guns, or power outages to bombs, then they are safe rather than dangerous. Nah, I disagree here. Tasers do indeed offer an alternative to guns. But they allow more force in other situations, where officers would previously have had to deescalate because "just shoot them" wasn't justified. Cops now use a taser where zero force might previously have been used.