Today’s diatribe is not so much a product review as much as it is an observation. A while back there was a show on TV called “The Colony”. It’s premise was to take a dozen or so strangers and put them together with limited provisions and simulate a doomsday scenario where there was a plague outbreak, natural disaster or even nuclear holocaust that ended life as we currently know it on the planet. It got me thinking about our increased dependence on electronic devices. Here are a few observations that might make you think.
Power of the Press? - Really
As most of our media consumption content (movies, books, radio, TV) goes digital, what we would do if an impending solar flare or Electromagentic Pulse (EMP), or some other ungodly reason destroyed our ability to produce power. Now I’m no doomsday or survivalist freak, nor do I listen to Glenn Beck, but I’m guessing that there would be a world of hurt and confusion if this ever happened. We’d have no books (ipads, e-readers), we’d have no TV (remember the old days when you could pick up TV on a little black and white battery operated portable – not any more with the advent of Digital Broadcasts and Set top boxes), and if Padora and other radio stations have their way, no radio? (automakers are including the ability to steam Pandora Internet Radio in its new models soon). Do newspapers even print papers anymore? Even so, if they did, I’ll bet they use computers and other sophisticated software to produce the printed version. I’m relatively sure they don’t use the old Guttenberg presses!
Food and Medicine?
Refrigeration would be gone, sophisticated supply chains for Just in Time (JIT) inventories of major retailers would dry up and the store shelves would be empty. No Amazon.com, no Ebay, no Criags list, no Costco or Wal-Mart….oh the horror…we’d even be hard pressed to get medical supplies or help as all of our charts are going digital.
Man it's FREEZING in here...
Man it's FREEZING in here...
We’d have no heat or air conditioning, no lights, no cameras, no action. Speaking of cameras, there’d be no way to take a picture and produce it would there? That’s all digital now too? Face it, a snuggie would be high tech.
Communication?
Communication?
What would thousands of teens do if they couldn’t play their ipods, ipads, or check their facebook status or tweets? Don’t even get me started on how they’d handle a cell phone outage. For those of you who still have home phone lines, they’d go dead as most of those lines wrap up your voice into nice little digital packets and send them over the internet now too. Communication would go from the speed of light to the speed of dark in a very short order.
Travel?
Without power or satellite data, we’d be lost. Does anyone even read a map anymore? Have you had the same experience I have driving along, following your GPS very obediently to stop and pause and say, “hmmmmm, what if it was wrong and it’s taking me to Rome, Italy instead of Rome Georgia? How would we get gas, provided there was any in a tank, in the ground? Autos wouldn’t crank or run anyway as any EMP would wipe out their electronics.
But I’m Ready…
Einstein said (and I'm paraphrasing) that he knew not what weapons World War 3 would be fought with but World War 4 would be fought with sticks and stones.
I’ve got faith in the perseverance of humans and I’m confident we’d survive, but I’m not so sure I’d want to be around for the aftermath. Ground zero might be preferable to what is left.
I am an early adopter of technology, and I love what it can do for us. I love gadgets and I’m totally geeky about the latest gear. It’s the reason I started writing this blog. We continue to rely very heavily on technology and its integration into our everyday lives. Think about Katrina, Haiti and all the other natural disasters and wars that basically display the de-evolution example. In these cases, at least there was a government response and other countries came to the aid of the victims. Slow response was better than no response. In the doomsday case, I don’t want to scare you, but no one is coming. You are on your own. Hollister and Aeropostale will not be open for business.
I do not believe, and I’m not contemplating the inevitable “big one” going off anytime soon. But, just thinking about it and writing about it is interesting to say the least. What 5 items would you think you'd want if you found yourself in this predicament (toilet paper is not allowed.) Comment below if you think you have the perfect list of 5 items. Mine would be a bible, a map, a lighter, a gun and an ax.
Ranks any "Doomsday" scenario as a great bit "RARE"
