Congratulations, your task is to rebuild modern society and you worry about your gear!

Dominus wrote:

Congratulations, your task is to rebuild modern society and you worry about your gear!

Maybe I should have elaborated on that in the initial post. I don't give a crap about playing video games if everything else has gone to shit.

But it would be incredibly useful to have at least a 1970s era level of computer tech, to do calculations for stuff like civil engineering, controlling medical or industrial equipment, just about anything that has any complexity at all that is not entirely analog (in the way that cars before 1970 or 1980 didn't have much in the way of electronics, other than to get power from the battery to the alternator). If nothing electronic would survive one of these, we are all going to have to learn to make do with a late 19th century level of tech (or perhaps early 20th century).

Thanks for calling attention to that, though, that helped me clarify my position.

Cheers 😀

So it's not about our gear in this forum but about mankinds gear?
Important distinction 😉

Dominus wrote:

So it's not about our gear in this forum but about mankinds gear?
Important distinction 😉

Yes. I meant "our gear" as in humanity, not as in just Vogons folks. 😀

snorg wrote:

Supposedly not too long ago we narrowly missed one of these. These can cause large EMP surges when they hit the earth's magnetosphere. The last major one was before the advent of modern electronics.
What I wonder is if any of our gear would survive unshielded, if not, how would you go about shielding them? It would be useful to know if we had to rebuild modern society after a catastrophic (but not extinction level, like full scale nuclear war) event. I'm assuming more primitive stuff might fare better than modern gear but maybe anything with an IC would be toast.

I would be interested in reading about the near miss that you mentioned, if there is something specific out there that you would care to point out for reading or viewing?

Would the side of the Earth facing away from the Sun at that time not be spared completely?

I like to believe that such an event as you mention, would not rise to the level of a civilization killer or mass chaos generator. Although it does sound like it would make for interesting reading/discussion.

For most devices they can survive a geo magnetic storm outright but an emp event is another matter, the power grid won't hold to a solar flare if a direct hit.

Here you go, straight from NASA:

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science- … may_superstorm/

I thought it was late 2013 that it happened but apparently it was in 2012. So not quite as recent as I thought but it sounds like it would have messed things up pretty bad.

JoeCorrado wrote:

Would the side of the Earth facing away from the Sun at that time not be spared completely?

No because these ejections can last for more than 24 hours so eventually the entire Earth would be exposed due to revolution. The bigger problem is that the magnetic field that deflects radiation and particles away from the Earth has been steadily weakening for about 300 years and there are signs that the poles are getting ready to do a flip. What happens when the poles flip? Will electricity still flow in the same way that it does now? Will generating and transmission equipment have to be modified? Will gravity be affected? Will living creatures that have spent the last 800 thousand years evolving under current conditions since the last pole reversal be able survive? We already know something is happening to the poles because the paths of migrating bird are changing. When the birds fly 'north', it is to a slightly different 'north' than the previous year, so if the birds are attuned to the poles changing then maybe we are too.

I've actually been meaning to acquire a Faraday cage and put some computer equipment in it alongside a gasoline or diesel-powered generator, so that when an EMP does hit the earth, I'll be one of the last people on Earth who still has any sort of digital computing power. 🤣 I would encourage other people to do the same thing, so that we'd have a chance to rebuild modern society.

I wonder if this guide would be of any use: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel … p-faraday-cage/

I think it would be a good idea to include technologies from different eras as backups, just to be sure. A Core i7 motherboard may be impossible to repair under doomsday conditions, but an Apple II should be doable.

snorg wrote:

Here you go, straight from NASA:

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science- … may_superstorm/

I thought it was late 2013 that it happened but apparently it was in 2012. So not quite as recent as I thought but it sounds like it would have messed things up pretty bad.

I remember hearing about this, now that I am reminded. Our high tech society is so much more at risk to these type events. Here in the USA our infrastructure is already in need of repair and upgrade. Our power grid would be even more severely affected.

Even if the power grid were to fail for a week, the result would be chaos. Food supplies would dwindle in the population centers, fresh water supplies as well. These issues would put pressure on government to maintain civil integrity/stability especially in population centers. Violence and civil unrest could quickly escalate.

A scary scenario that could have a domino effect much worse than the initial impact.

I can't help thinking how many bridges, roads, and other publi works
Projects we could have done if we hadn't pissed away 2 trillion dollars
in the Middle East. And we probably could have busted into Bin Laden's
compound on September 20, 2001. Sounds like he was sitting
there the entire time. What a joke.