The world wouldn't end if the power went out...
Seems like a really, really dumb premise
shareIf the power did go out, what would you do?
Do you have any medicines that need refrigeration? They're gone within a day.
Food? Everything in your fridge is unusable in three days.
The chances are that, if the power did go out, 3/4 of the United States would be dead in a month. Most people don't know how to grow their own food or have any practical skills that would allow them to survive. The death toll from that alone would be catastrophic.
Add to that how many people own guns or could get to guns and the picture starts looking bleak.
Thats all true. But why should the power get out? Even if a "magic virus" where able to destroy computers, they would simply get the backups up (who are mostly off line in some cold storage) or simply produce new ones from millions of parts.
So even if we would accept that there is a "world destroying virus", it would take less then a week to replace the relevant parts to get power back quickly.
Also, especially America, is thoroughly obese. If you can ensure water supply, lots of people would survive with little food for at least a month. Yes, the death toll would be in the millions, but not like 10 millions a week.
Those movies always depict 30% of the population as total sociopaths idiots with a small layer of paint to "make a believable human being". The problem with that is, that if order is restored and they did acts of unnecessary evil, they would be prosecuted, but at least hunted for the rest of their lives.
As depicted many times in movies, those wouldn't play "intelligent games" and "have arguments" with someone who has something they want. They simply would raid the compound, kill anybody they can kill and take what they can get (as shown in Day Z and The Walking Dead series).
Its a fascinating idea of "intellectualizing survival". The whole truth is a quite different type of movie - depending how much wealth (and intelligence) distribution in a certain area is typical.
For some areas, I would guess mass murdering the top 10% would become an immediate "sport".
Only in America. All power went out in the Eastern coast of Canada this December for about ten days. Nobody died. Nothing was looted. Everything was fine.
shareExactly. If this just happened in the US, despite us being hated globally, we would be up and running again before any real violence or "Military Intervention" would ever happen.
That being said, the movie does also seem to focus more on the intimacies of the characters and each other, not so much the stupid cause of the blackout.
9 month later, lots of kids where born :D
To be fair, there was more than just the power. All telecommunications were down, no cable, no internet, no telephones or cellphones, so there was no news. No one knew what was happening beyond their own fence. Supply lines were being attack, so the shelves in the stores were getting bare and prices were going through the roof. Maybe its not the most accurate depiction of what it would take for civilization to fall apart, but I think they covered enough bases for the sake of the movie.
shareI don't know, isn't your statement kind of like the exception that proves the point? I mean, for Christ's sake, even the robbers in Canada are polite about it...
shareI am not intimately familiar with this even in Canada but the break down of civility as depicted in this film is not as extreme or unlikely as might be though. A power outage during December in Canada is a different beast than on during spring or summer in California. Winter time is a good time for perishable food staying at a safe temperature outside. You say no one died, I am sure that was hyperbole, at least one person died as a result of this, likely due to the cold temperature. There might not have been looting and things might have returned to normal but it's still a far cry from what was depicted in this movie.
shareBut why should the power get out?
I admit that I'm kind of hand-waving that part away because "killer virus" is a dumb premise.
it would take less then a week to replace the relevant parts to get power back quickly.
Unlikely. I won't bore you with too many reports like this:
http://empcommission.org/docs/A2473-EMP_Commission-7MB.pdf
but, in essence, it is said that we have stockpiled only a quarter of the parts needed to replace our essential systems. That's plenty of parts for localized issues but, if the whole nation/world went black, we wouldn't have the parts. Further, we would need to use a lot of those parts to be able to manufacture more replacement parts.
Granted, the assessments were done in 2006 so things could have changed and I could be completely wrong on our current level of preparedness. However, I see it most likely being treated as any other Doomsday scenario. It is so unlikely that a "killer virus" could do anything like this that I imagine we haven't changed much on preparation.
For some areas, I would guess mass murdering the top 10% would become an immediate "sport".
Yeah, I have no arguments with that one. ^_^ share
so how do you think people lived in the middle age without electricity?
MARVEL HARDCORE DEFENDER
so how do you think people lived in the middle age without electricity?
The average lifespan was 30 yrs old as compared to 68 today.
share
That stat doesn't really tell the whole story. Vaccines, antibiotics, and hospital child birth is what raised life expectancy. People didn't normally die at 30 its all the children dying young divided by the people who lived a fuller life.
shareA "stat" doesn't tell a 'story" at all, genius.
"Vaccines, antibiotics, and hospital child birth..'
Among 1000's of other factors, genius.
No, actually that sums up the majority comes down to healthcare. Obvious that's what your trying to convey a story by trying to say people only lived to 30 before, genius.
shareObviously English isn't your first language, so I have no idea what you mean by that gibberish nonsense.
shareHe is right you idiot, do some research. 'Average' lifespan was only so low during medieval periods due to high infant mortality. People were not dying at 30 at any kind of rate that would be necessarily deemed abnormally high by today's standards. People throughout history have always lived into their 60's or 70's.
The majority of civilization has become too accustomed to modern conveniences and reliant upon it to survive a break down, many people would die during a scenario like that shown in this movie.
Not even close. You have provided ZERO research, just made it up as you go along, kid.
shareAllow me to feed the trolls...
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=average+lifespan+during+the+middle+ages+%20
Don't go on other people's assumptions and what you've been told. DO THE RESEARCH. Why should I provide you with all the research? I'm not making anything up, these are the facts all things considered. Infant mortality was high enough to bring down the average lifespan to the oft quoted 30 years, had more people been living through infancy, the average lifespan would climb to more modern longevity. In fact, during this time had a male child made it to his 20th birthday he could expect to live another 50 years. That would bring is lifespan in line with the roughly 65-75 years you can expect today.
While modern society would be shaken to it's core if faced by a sudden collapse of modern utilities, that's only due to our near total reliance on them. Perishable food would spoil, climate controls would expose us to the elements, life support systems would fail, only the most adaptable would survive. Those that did survive could then expect a middle ages life expectancy.
Why should I provide you with all the research?
Because YOU are the one that brought it up, genius.
And I never asked for "all". Strawman.
share
You just Inceptioned this thread, it's probably gonna collapse in on itself now (even more so). You claiming I'm making a strawman argument, is in itself a strawman argument, given I provided a wonderfully useful if nothing else passive aggressive link for you to research a subject you claimed I had done ZERO research on and was just making it up as I went along.
Not even close. You have provided ZERO research, just made it up as you go along, kid.
Well, I've done the research for both of us, given you had done none in the first place. share
It was an obvious strawman.
Your so-called "research" and conclusions are false.
Not only that, but you have completely contradicted yourself.
Where did I contradict myself?
The so called average lifespan was 30 only due to so many dying while infants. If out of 100 people, 50 die before childhood but the other 50 go on to live into their 50's and 60's, they average will look pretty poor. How is that a false conclusion?
You're just trolling, however, here is your chance to prove me wrong on that count and on my point of what the average lifespan was during the middle ages.
People in the middle ages were more self reliant than they are today. Electricity has made life easier for humanity, but the cost of which is that people have become more specialized in their professions. People today no longer have to devote such a large portion of their daily time into finding food, so in turn they spend their time doing other things, naturally.
In the middle ages, 90% of the population knew how to hunt/slaughter and/or grow crops, how to forage and how to find clean drinking water.
What is the percentage of modern people that know how to do these things? Not as many as you'd think I'm afraid.
If a powerful solar flare hit the Earth it could destroy every transformer on an entire continent. This type of scenario would leave people without power for literally years because there is no back up supply of transformers sufficient for an aging power grid.
If the power went off for a year, urban areas would probably become war zones, and rural farmlands would become the newest 'cities'. People would flock to where they can find food and water, like they have been doing since the beginning of history. Imagine the chaos and despair of tens of millions of people suddenly displaced from their homes, and one can conclude that it's not so simple as 'they did it in the middle ages, so why can't we?'
So the short answer is that in the middle ages, most people didn't live in places they had no natural access to food and water.
That aside,
Potentially the greatest concern regarding a long term power outage is not food, water, or even people though. It's most likely to be radiation. There are many huge stockpiles of used nuclear material that must have a cool water system pumping at all times. If the power fails for those facilities, the cooling pools evaporate, the nuclear material melts, explodes, and then gets released into the air. Depending which way the wind is blowing, the land and water of entire nations could then become irradiated.
Sweet dreams. ^^
But they were educated to know how to live. They would think us complete buffoons trying to do basic tasks. Could you shear a sheep and make wool, spin yarn, weave, shoe a horse, make candles, start fires, make tools which requires knowledge of making and manipulating iron, create medicines? These are basic tasks which few people have any idea about these days. There would be no Google to figure things out. Most people can't even read maps without logging onto something. Disease would soon be rampant and crime would cripple society. I wouldn't fancy our chance much.
shareIf this scenario ever occurs, the future will belong to the Amish. They know how to do all of these things. Amazing culture.
shareI once went on a jet boat ride around the rapids at Niagara Falls. A family of about eight Amish joined us. So they might survive the apocalypse but what would they do for thrills?
shareWell, they were accustomed to it and knew now other way. As a society we are reliant upon modern technology to survive. Refrigeration? Once that's gone and perishable food hits unsafe temperature, above 40 Fahrenheit, you have roughly two hours to cook and get back in temp before spoilage and all the fun that comes will it becomes an issue. Unless you are one of the minority that can cultivate or hunt their own food, your are dead within roughly three weeks without by starvation. Better yet, if you don't have potable water, you are dead within roughly three days. Knowledge is power is these scenarios, if you don't have it pray you know people that do. Welcome to the middle ages.
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