Missing Blackouts
For the past year, I haven’t experience a power failure at home because of power backups. While extended blackouts are awful, the occasional blackout was a good reminder of the fragility of our society and the very thin level of technological advancement that separates us from chaos. It was the tech equivalent of a momento mori. All things break — better prepare.
But now with power backups, I’ve missed the odd hiccup. I’ve missed having to fetch a flashlight or light a candle. On the other hand of back ups, I don’t miss losing un-backed up documents and having to try to retrieve some deeply cached version that usually never exists. That is the most frustrating experience one can encounter in modern work.
As the next generation of homes get built and distributed power generation becomes mainstay, we might need to implement our own drills for events that could still leave us without electricity. Maybe it’s a solar flare or an EMP that destroys electronics requiring long term off-grid living?
Without resorting to a similar scenario in The Veldt, it might be useful to add basic non-electronic survival to the “deep fake” and “fake news” spotting skills kids learn at school. Why not a course on rebuilding civilization?
