System Down

[Tone]

I'm at Deltaco and I am having a cup of coffee ..I already ate my breakfast burrito.

I'm sitting back watching customer after customer (one just walked out, money in hand) being turned away...

The reason? "The system is down". I have to wonder if this isn't some kind of microcosm or small glimpse into the future of an unplugged world being handled by a whole generation who cannot function when the system goes down...

What do you think?

 

[Not David]

I thought you were talking about the band System of a Down

 

[chevyontheriver]

I'm at Deltaco and I am having a cup of coffee ..I already ate my breakfast burrito.

I'm sitting back watching customer after customer (one just walked out, money in hand) being turned away...

The reason? "The system is down". I have to wonder if this isn't some kind of microcosm or small glimpse into the future of an unplugged world being handled by a whole generation who cannot function when the system goes down...

What do you think?

Most big box stores can't sell you an item without a bar code. They don't know what it is, or how much it costs, or how it fits in their database.

Some places are doing away with cash sales. So they can't even take payment if they wanted to, if they knew what it was, if they knew the price, if they could enter the info later, if their system is down. With cash in your hand.

Yesterday Wells Fargo had a problem at a data center. People all over the country are disrupted by it. I didn't get paid. Still waiting. We are much more dependent upon such systems than in 2000, when fears of the y2k bug were extreme.

By the way, in Unix there is a y2.038k bug. Only nineteen years to prepare for that.

 

[Tone]

Yesterday Wells Fargo had a problem at a data center. People all over the country are disrupted by it. I didn't get paid. Still waiting. We are much more dependent upon such systems than in 2000, when fears of the y2k bug were extreme.

Wow, just think what it will be like if the Russians (or whoever) succeed at taking down the grid...

 

[Tone]

I thought you were talking about the band System of a Down

Disorder...disorder...disssss...ooooo...rder...

 

[eleos1954]

Wow, just think what it will be like if the Russians (or whoever) succeed at taking down the grid...

No electricity - whether through natural or man caused event(s)

One estimate is that within a year or so, two-thirds of the United States population would die. The other estimate is that within a year or so, 90% of the U.S. population would die.

No doubt would be devastating.

 

[chevyontheriver]

No electricity - whether through natural or man caused event(s)

One estimate is that within a year or so, two-thirds of the United States population would die. The other estimate is that within a year or so, 90% of the U.S. population would die.

No doubt would be devastating.

I lived without electricity for two years when I was in the Peace Corps years ago. And yet I cannot imagine what would happen here if the electricity went out for more than a week. I do think it would be devastating. We could not adapt in time. And we have cold winters too. Lots of starvation, riots, martial law, disease.

 

[Percivale]

I lived without electricity for two years when I was in the Peace Corps years ago. And yet I cannot imagine what would happen here if the electricity went out for more than a week. I do think it would be devastating. We could not adapt in time. And we have cold winters too. Lots of starvation, riots, martial law, disease.

I’m pretty sure that whatever took electricity down, people would have it running again for essential places right away. Getting it working for everyone might take a while though. My family would be ok without electricity, we have wood heat and a solar panel I could rig up to run a few things. We should keep working at preparedness, you never know what might happen and it tends to be good for your lifestyle anyway, gets you closer to nature and your local community, and better understanding how things work.

 

[chevyontheriver]

I’m pretty sure that whatever took electricity down, people would have it running again for essential places right away. Getting it working for everyone might take a while though. My family would be ok without electricity, we have wood heat and a solar panel I could rig up to run a few things. We should keep working at preparedness, you never know what might happen and it tends to be good for your lifestyle anyway, gets you closer to nature and your local community, and better understanding how things work.

The weakness is at the switching stations, the main grid relays, those fenced in properties where the transmission cables terminate, and the risk is that if an EMP burned out thousands of relays in multiple states it would be rough to quickly manufacture more of them, particularly if the factories to make them also had to contend with an electrical outage. It's not equipment you can just go to Home Depot to pick up. Hospitals and other very critical infrastructure have backup generators, but running them for weeks under load would see many of those break down. A regional EMP, either from a solar event or from an atmospheric nuclear blast, would cause riots when people go hungry. It could de-civilize us very quickly. We're already rather de-civilized politically. It wouldn't take much for open war in the streets over food. Preparedness is good, and yet we have a long way to go. An EMP could show us just how far we didn't get in preparation.