The once and future darkness.

The once and future darkness.

We live in an age of light, of electricity and computer powered things, from cars to satellites, from monstrous mining equipment to robots that can fit on your fingertip, from safes that lock away our precious items to hermetically sealed doors for our labs. Power governs most everything – but the old saying is true even here – power corrupts. So what happens when the power goes off?

I thought I’d do some research for this particular topic and I was struck by something – As many will know this year marks 100 years since the beginning of the great war in 1914. It may surprise you, dear reader, to know that my lovely little country first had electricity brought to its fine shores in 1886! And though it did not become common until 1917, it was here, so that by 100 years ago we had passed out of our previous darkness and, as it were, stepped into the light.

But even then – had we somehow lost the wonderful spark of light – we would not have been so badly off. Many, if not all, would have been able to very quickly adjust to life without power, as they had  experienced the phenomenon coming into being in their own lifetime. It is perhaps also worthy of note that, as I write this, through my research I find that on August 28 1914 the first Kiwi volunteer for the great war was buried in NZ. Lest we forget.

So that was the old darkness – the time before electricity came – some would say a simpler, easier time. A time with no computers, no cell phones and yes – no internet! Some of my friends say that they were born for such a time as that, “When men were men” Etc. Etc. For myself – I am a child of the digital age – almost everything I do requires not only electricity but also electronics; from driving my truck to washing my clothes not to mention the many and various tasks involving computers that set about making up my everyday life.

So what, then, is this future darkness? Well, in short, it is a thought experiment. Imagine if you will today’s world, a world of computers, supermarkets, and online finical records. Now imagine a global Electromagnetic pulse (fries everything with electricity running through it) and here you are in the future darkness. No electricity generation, everything that uses electricity blown, and no quick fix.

So, first up let’s deal with the practical stuff and start at the bottom – Shelter. New Zealand does pretty well here; we don’t have many high-rise apartment structures and most of us live in our very own self-contained house. Aussie would do ok  if they could get out of those densely populated cities. I would hazard a guess that any city the physical size of Auckland with more than say 2 million people living in it has a problem. New York, London, and Tokyo are just plain gone. OK, so that’s shelter. What about food and water? Supermarkets with their large refrigeration and distribution warehouses, not to mention transport network, are dead, but again NZ does OK here. Most of us have the capability to grow our own food and catch our own water (though my gutters need a clean), and if we thought about it and shared with neighbours, we should be all right. Farmers actually run into a slight problem here; they have to get rid of some of their stock in order to keep the herd healthy and viable. Also people will start wanting their own cows and sheep, and may just outright take them. The aussies don’t fare quite so well here but could do OK – Australia has a harsher climate to grow things in and so may suffer here without pumped water. Again, any big cities are dead.

So we’ve come through the worst of it with most people being reasonable and nice to each other, realising that we are all in this together. It’s time to start talking to each other – So far any given town doesn’t know (but assumes) that they are the only ones affected. Well good news, New Zealand; we actually have a few horses and other beasts of burden not too far outside our towns, so we can start to set up a communication network again. Also Kiwiland has some of the best sailors in the world, so we can even go and talk to our Aussie friends – if only we can find some of those celestial navigation charts again.

But all of this has been broad strokes stuff – How would this affect your daily life? How often do you get up at dawn and go to bed around sunset? How much sex would you be having without contraception? When was the last time you ploughed a field or hand milked a cow?

Personally? If this happens, I struggle a bit. I’m a big guy, so would probably be useful lifting and pushing things. I don’t have any real farm knowledge, so I would have to learn that, but I think I could be a useful teacher of it once I had learnt. But first things first – I would have to get home from Invercargill to Hamilton…

By the way – if you found this an interesting thought exercise and thought “Oh, cool idea but that could never happen,” check out this.