The post electrical world

I saw a tv program yesterday, a documentary that got me thinking. Yep, with no job and no wife and kids to mind, I can afford the luxury of fantasizing all day, lol.

My fondness of sci-fi films have always endeared me to theories on where civilization is heading so this latest one about the upcoming solar flare anomaly naturally pricked my ears. We've been treated to the Hollywood versions of this in 2012 starring John Cusack and Knowing starring Nicholas Cage. Riveting shows I must say, proposing not just how it might happen but how people will treat each other in such an event.

So a couple of days ago when NASA's alarms bells rang again, I got excited. It'll come in a couple of years, by 2013 they promise. A giant solar flare party guaranteed to rock us to the core and leave our satellites and cities dead. That's the latest in a long line of predictions that include the usual suspects - global warming, global freezing, supervolcano, world war 3 and so forth. Each one thoroughly open to dispute of course, which is the beauty of science's openness to critique.

Remember the 70's? Those photos of people holding up "The end is nigh! Repent!" sign waving by the roadsides of America? It was a hip thing to do during the hippie era. Those days, all people had was the word of God. Well okay, other prophecy books probably weighed in too plus whatever it was they were smoking. This century, its more dramatic. They got the props to go along with it. Real actual props with real actual dead people... in tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, pandemics, droughts, religious fundies, you name it. Its all happening at a pace that's leaving scientists scratching their heads.

Nobody knows what will eventually do us in but all post-ELE (extinction level event) scenarios seem to point to one similar conclusion. If there are survivors, they will not come from Europe, America or any other advanced country. They will rise from 'backward' nations.

Who are these backward nations? They are societies that are not affected by EMP, that electro magnetic pulse generated by a nuclear or solar event. They have poor electrical infrastructure. Simply put, if you've never had a need for iPads, iPhones, cars, shopping malls, internet... you will probably survive the big sweep. That's the theory.

Technology has made us great but it has also given us a genetic-like fatality. Try living without electricity for more than a week. That's what the scientists are trying to say about this new solar flare anomaly.

Yes, what to do when power stations grind to a halt and the phones don't work, the water don't flow and the toilets won't flush. What to do when the petrol stations shut down, shops don't open and you're down to your last can of beans. Not for days or weeks but for months on end. Oh we'll still have fossil fuel alright. Its just that everything we need to deliver it would have fried in a solar EMP blast. These are sensitive electronics that control power stations, phone networks, distribution of goods, even your car. The factories that make these electronics will also have fried, leaving you with no spares. Rebuilding them will take years, even decades.

It would be the time when people realize that money cannot be eaten. The might of the dollar is no more.

So who'll survive? My guess is the farmer and the hunter. Simple but hardy people living off the land, in the forests, remote valleys and far-flung villages untouched by 'civilization.' Scientists predict that when social structure breaks down, the balance of power will almost certainly tip over to the ruthless and the lawless. Where money once spoke, sharp weapons take over. The civilizational continuum may actually flip backwards to the medieval times.

And in a curious karma-ish flip, the oppressors who once used money and technology to exploit the have-nots could find themselves at the opposite end of the stick.

It sounds Hollywood-ish but not hard to imagine. There are many spots on earth where the survival of the fittest doesn't involve money. Who do you think has a greater chance of surviving a post-electrical world - the hardy hunter from impoverished Congo or the nerdy accountant from some downtown consulting firm?

In my own village, it still feels surreal to light up a kerosene lamp at night (its cheaper than paying TNB) and then hook up to the internet via mobile broadband. I live in two worlds. That's why news like NASA's is kinda fun, coz I get to ponder on how long I might survive in a post-electrical world, hypothetically speaking.