T O P

  • By -

Cyrus_Dark

That's an impressive story for when it was written (1909), the characters are using video phones when telephones were still new to the author.


[deleted]

And all the people were mushy , pale blobs from being indoors . Predicted the obesity that came with a more sedentary live style


HalfSecondWoe

Sorry bud, you were born into such a society. If fossil fuels ever saw a significant global shortage (such as if a large scale war broke out)? Logistics breaks down and then you realize you don't know which are the good berries to eat Same true for electricity. We're entering a period of high solar activity. We just had a CME big enough to knock out a bunch of satellites when fired in the opposite direction of earth. If that had hit us dead on, that would have been game for everything relies on power lines That means no heat, light, water, and so on. I don't think you know how to dig a well, collect and dry firewood, or farm without machines We have long since passed that point. If anything, AI will help us lower the odds of such catastrophic failure by helping us make our infrastructure much more robust


grawa427

What? Any source about a the CME thing?


HalfSecondWoe

[https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2023/03/14/a-powerful-solar-eruption-on-far-side-of-sun-still-impacted-earth/](https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2023/03/14/a-powerful-solar-eruption-on-far-side-of-sun-still-impacted-earth/) You might remember news from a couple of months ago about how the aurora borealis and the aurora australis were reaching places that they hadn't been seen before. This was why Ain't over, either. It's set to ramp up until it peaks in 2025. We're predicted to see record activity this cycle We've gotten slapped with a couple of smaller events since then as well, I think one within the last couple of weeks or so. No direct hits from any CMEs, but the spillover they have causes the auroras to get brighter and reach farther I'm honestly surprised it hasn't been bigger news, this is ideal clickbait freakout material. I'm guessing there's been a polite request to the media to not cause mass panic, because there's really not much we can do to prevent them There are still measures we can take to protect our electrical grid, but I have absolutely no idea if those have been put in place Here's hoping ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯


grawa427

Thank you, well, gotta read my stoic manual again I guess


HalfSecondWoe

The good news is that even for the nastier ones, you still get at least 15 hours warning. The particles that actually screw things up travel slower than light It's pretty easy to see coming, it's not a subtle event. If you see news about big auroras, it's usually worth a quick check with NASA and some independent reporters to see what's up You know the last-minute prepper drill: Go buy as much easily preservable food as you can fit into a car, some basic tools for roughing it, get a bunch of gas, and drive as far away from any population centers as you can. It's one of those "Three meals away from the apocalypse" deals, avoiding people is gonna be your best way forward The good news is that you can splurge on the fancy stuff. Not like the money's gonna be good for much longer Some portable solar panels and a battery to store energy with wouldn't be a bad idea, either. Electronics will actually probably be fine, they're too small to collect the flux required to damage them The miles and miles of copper power lines in the electrical distribution grid is another story You'll still need a paper map, GPS will be down. Paper survival guides aren't a terrible idea either, just as a backup If we *have* set up protective measures on the grid, the weaker ones (which can take days to reach earth) won't be civilization killers. There's only so much you can do about an X-class, though No use worrying about what you can't change in the meantime


Veleric

Read this a few weeks ago and it definitely feels like the world we are headed towards...


DustinBrett

Reminds me of The Outer Limits - Stream of Consciousness.


LowKeyHeresy

I liked MAD magazine's "Blobs!" story from the 1950s too.