Cawlin
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Imagine if suddenly and without warning, all electricity and electronics stopped working. Imagine all internal combustion engines stopped working. Imagine all gunpowder and other forms of high density fuel/explosives stopped working.
Let's imagine that there would be no other implications such as the Earth's gravity or orbit or atmosphere changing.
Initially, it would be bedlam of course. Communication beyond voice would be gone. Transportation is limited to bicycles, foot traffic, and using horses and whatnot to pull wagons and carts.
There would be zero response from government and police forces.
How long do you think it would take for all authority to revert to "might makes right" scenario?
How long do you think it would take before people to become desperate with no clean water or food?
How long do you think it would take people to band together to survive and to stand against those who have already banded together with the intention of subjugating the rest?
I think it would take about a week, tops before people REALLY got desperate when they realized that no police or soldiers were coming to preserve order and save them. They would be getting hungry and thirsty and dying of disease already from poor sanitation by the end of that week...
Within the first month, probably 25% of the population would be dead either from disease or violence or fires and the like. Within the first 3 months or so, probably half the population would be dead. After 6 months, probably 75% of humanity on the planet is gone.
It would probably take about a year for roughly 90 to 95% of the population to just flat out die/kill each other.
Can you ride a horse?
Can you shoot a bow?
Can you farm and live off what you can grow?
What do you know about raising livestock?
Anyway, this is the premise of this book I just started reading "Dies The Fire" by S.M. Stirling. It was recommended to me here by someone I can't remember, so if you are the one who recommended this, I apologize for not remembering you, but thank you for the recommendation. I'm only just starting the book but I'm enjoying it so far.
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Tych2
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It would suck. I have this conversation with my uncle all the time. He wishes he could go back and I laugh at him. Just in medicine and dentistry alone.
I want nothing to do with it.
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Cawlin
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Tych2 posted:
It would suck. I have this conversation with my uncle all the time. He wishes he could go back and I laugh at him. Just in medicine and dentistry alone.
I want nothing to do with it.
It would DEFINITELY suck hard core imo. Absolutely I agree.
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Liquid741
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i have talked about it and already have a plan (somewhat) if it happened. my wife's family lives in the country, owns a lake and a assload of weapons. i would head there...and get myself armed. would be a long ride on our bikes, but since no one has cars then it should be fine.
would miss my Jeep though.
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Cawlin
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Liquid741 posted:
i have talked about it and already have a plan (somewhat) if it happened. my wife's family lives in the country, owns a lake and a assload of weapons. i would head there...and get myself armed.
Well that would be well and good, but in the scenario in the book, internal combustion engines (fuel and electronics) and gunpowder no longer work.
Hope you mean you have lots of bows, arrows, swords, knives, spears, and clubs there, and that you can get there on a bicycle and raise horses. Also I hope it's inaccessible to the millions of starving and desperate people that will go wandering...
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paulg_68
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There's a series of fictional books on exactly this subject.
http://www.amazon.com/Dies-Fire-S-M-Stirling/dp/0451460413/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2
The main problem would be starvation and it would kick in quickly. Stores would be picked clean in a few days. Every field and pasture would be picked clean in a month. There would be no new crops for the next season because all the seed would be eaten.
The only real chance anyone would have to survive would be by fishing in the ocean.
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Modeeb
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There was a conservative movement known as Luddites Whose philosophy was no progress. Some people just are welded to the status quo.
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Liquid741
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Cawlin posted:
Liquid741 posted:
i have talked about it and already have a plan (somewhat) if it happened. my wife's family lives in the country, owns a lake and a assload of weapons. i would head there...and get myself armed.
Well that would be well and good, but in the scenario in the book, internal combustion engines (fuel and electronics) and gunpowder no longer work.
Hope you mean you have lots of bows, arrows, swords, knives, spears, and clubs there, and that you can get there on a bicycle and raise horses. Also I hope it's inaccessible to the millions of starving and desperate people that will go wandering...
hmm, didnt see the part of gunpowder...shame my iPhone wont work to learn to shoot a bow.  i guess the damn dog has to go, he's still kinda a puppy and i bet he's tender.
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Z-Elder
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/shrug Who cares. It would free me of bills and working. It would be like going back to my summers in N. MN.
I have a bike, bow, Fruit trees and berry bushes, garden, and a water source. I have a boat and it is a few blocks to a river or the sound. I have crab and shrimp pots and traps. The guy down the street took the rabbits and chichens after the wife passed and he has pidgeons. He and his kids and grandkids are all close by and would have to trade their shotguns in their back windows for their bows. The lady next door cans all my fruit and makes wine. Entry to our area could be blocked somewhat. All part of why I bought this 112 year old home. We'd be good for over a year even if the fish and crabs couldn't be gotten to. After that we'd be vegans I guess.
Bring it On! At my age I need some excitement that lasts a few years.
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NuEM
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That's nothing. Imagine a world where bows no longer work, knifes no longer cut and trees could walk.
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-Espiritu-
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how does "gun powder" stop working?
I know their are hypothetical reasons that all electrical systems could fail (sun/emp/magnetism), but things would still burn.
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Cawlin
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-Espiritu- posted:
how does "gun powder" stop working?
I know their are hypothetical reasons that all electrical systems could fail (sun/emp/magnetism), but things would still burn.
I don't really know. It's the premise of the book. I've just started "reading" it (it's an audio book so I'm like 2 hours in on a 23 hour book), I didn't write it.
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BubbleDude
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paulg_68 posted:
There's a series of fictional books on exactly this subject.
http://www.amazon.com/Dies-Fire-S-M-Stirling/dp/0451460413/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2
Very first post posted:
this is the premise of this book I just started reading "Dies The Fire" by S.M. Stirling
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Lyken-P
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As someone working as a Tech... Somedays I long for a world without Technology. I swear, I'm going to shun the whole thing one day and become a farmer or something.
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eodoll
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The pen is mightier than the sword.
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Aerlinthian
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Cawlin posted:
Imagine if suddenly and without warning, all electricity and electronics stopped working. Imagine all internal combustion engines stopped working. Imagine all gunpowder and other forms of high density fuel/explosives stopped working.
TBH I really can't get past the physics premise of this scenario.
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paulg_68
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BubbleDude posted:
paulg_68 posted:
There's a series of fictional books on exactly this subject.
http://www.amazon.com/Dies-Fire-S-M-Stirling/dp/0451460413/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2
Very first post posted:
this is the premise of this book I just started reading "Dies The Fire" by S.M. Stirling
tldr
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NuEM
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If electricity stopped working would atoms still bond and form molecules? 
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Onslaught.
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NuEM posted:
If electricity stopped working would atoms still bond and form molecules?
If combustion stopped working would carbohydrate catabolism also end?
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Cawlin
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Aerlinthian posted:
Cawlin posted:
Imagine if suddenly and without warning, all electricity and electronics stopped working. Imagine all internal combustion engines stopped working. Imagine all gunpowder and other forms of high density fuel/explosives stopped working.
TBH I really can't get past the physics premise of this scenario.
Admittedly, that really requires some sort of mysticism force I agree. As absurd as it is to say, I find a zombie apocalypse more "plausible". That said, suspension of disbelief is one thing I can achieve relatively easily within the confines of a story or movie or whatnot. Mostly what makes it interesting is not so much how people cope and get around "modern convenience" but how people behave in the absence of any sort of order.
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Cawlin
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Onslaught. posted:
NuEM posted:
If electricity stopped working would atoms still bond and form molecules?
If combustion stopped working would carbohydrate catabolism also end?
Clearly there are some physiological issues associated with the premise - again, suspension of disbelief is key lol!
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Aerlinthian
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Cawlin posted:
Mostly what makes it interesting is not so much how people cope and get around "modern convenience" but how people behave in the absence of any sort of order.
Yeah we would have to undergo a brutal revamping of how we coped with the physical world. A staggering amount of death would ensue until things stabilized and we established how we would again cope.
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