How long would you live if electricity for the whole world went out permanently?

I was having this conversation with my daughter and thought it was an interesting topic.

If an EMP or solar flare took out everything electronic in the whole world (permanently), how long do you think it would take for you to die, given your current location and circumstances.

I believe my daughter thinks we would live a lot longer than I do, but she is thinking about how long she can live without the internet while I am thinking the world will quickly descend into anarchy.

With no traditional forms of transport, so supplies would dry up, limited resources, health etc, law and order would be a challenge as things become more desperate.

I think I would live for about 3 months. I would try to get the family somewhere safe and remote and come back later, but I think most people would have the same idea.

Damaskox,
@Damaskox@lemmy.world avatar

Would probably depend on how strongly my survive instinct would kick in, and what I’d be willing to do to survive. And of course on how we as a society would deal with this big change.

A few minutes would be the minimum.

AceFuzzLord,

I would definitely die sooner than a lot of people because of my mechanical heart valve. The blood thinners and needing to make sure my blood isn’t too thin or thick would be harder since I’ve been getting it checked for over a decade and I’ve never seen them use a non-electric method of testing.

qyron,

I worked closely with an energy company for some time and enjoyed talking with the field maintenace personell and soon discovered that fable of sensible electronics on the power is just that.

Most of the power relies on hardware to control, distribute and protect the grid. And I mean old school hardware, not electronics.

The most electronic dependent part of the grid here is essentially on the end of the line, inside consumers homes, to measure and control the energy delivered and consumed.

Wild fires are more of a menace to power lines and energy distribution than thunderstorms or other massive energy discharges.

ComplexLotus,

Solar pannels and wind farms will continue working, so the grid may fail, but there will remain many small islands where electricity keeps working ig

Da_Boom,
@Da_Boom@iusearchlinux.fyi avatar

Honestly, I wonder if it would make me live longer. Sometimes it takes a literal crisis to get me out of my chair.

Sure the collapse of society will possibly happen. But that means all polluting systems would inevitably shut down. And at that point you have to get creative. While I don’t live on a farm, it wouldn’t take much to rob a store for seeds and food with the security systems down. And guns are few and far between here in aus.

straypet,

Get some seeds, press the button on the packet and after a bit out comes the food, right?

Farming is hard and electricity plays a huge part in how it’s currently done.

Da_Boom,
@Da_Boom@iusearchlinux.fyi avatar

Yes, but I’m not planning on doing full on farming… rather a small set of crops I can manage on my own with gardening implements and my own bare hands. Times will be lean, and I’d have to ration what I have, and there’s always the chance that a bad harvest could cause me to catch my death, but trying anything you can is the aim.

Maybe setting some bird traps or something is a good idea, it’s worth a shot.

Basically to only grow as much as I need to survive. Might even fill tanks with the water to keep a surplus in case the water system loses pressure and water dries out. I have a set of gas stoves and dad loves his barbecues, so we can cook on propane, charcoal and we can even use the wood for our fireplace, and we could chop trees down in the park near my house for more wood heck our Falcon wagon runs on LPG, so we can use that in our barbecues as well if we can manage to adapt the nozzle on the filler cap.

It won’t last forever, but the whole point of doing it is to give yourself enough time to come up with a plan and improve your issues over time.

Even with the power gone I still live in a city. And I guarantee the roads will be blocked with cars as more and more run out of petrol. Unless you can get out as quick as possible and can get fuel before the fuel stations run out of juice to pump the stuff, you aren’t going to get far. So you might be better off staying put and only going short distances to conserve your fuel.

Of could if the outage is the result of EMP your modern car’s electrics could be fried anyway. Unless you can find spare working parts to fix your ECUs and other computers or to manage to adapt your car to magnetos and carburettors, you won’t be going anywhere anyway. Honestly the only thing that might still be working is my dad’s Moto Guzzi. Just put the original ignition back on to it if the upgraded electronic ignition is fried and it will run, may have to push start it, but it will., and you can weave in and out of roadblocks with it, and all our other cars and our lawnmower can contribute their fuel via a siphon.

monkeytennis,
@monkeytennis@lemmy.world avatar

However long it would take me to find a tank of nitrogen to strap to my face for happy sleep time.

RBWells,

If given enough notice to store water and fill 3 good coolers with ice, longer than 2 weeks - we lost power for 2 weeks with a hurricane once and had an electric well pump so no water either. Had set up a system with one cooler allowed to be opened, the others not often. By 2 weeks the water that we’d filled the tub with (for washing not drinking - water with a little bit of bleach) was getting questionable.

Like you, I think the biggest issue would be people.

Hadriscus, (edited )

The world becoming anarchic (=no individual holding power/authority over any other) would be amazing. Electricity turning off might actually help challenge established power structures. I like your thinking !

I also think we tend to underestimate just how good we are, when rid of our oppressions. We’re set against one another, day after day, and we end up thinking it’s our nature. It’s not ! If electricity were to be cut suddenly and everywhere, I’m certain we would help out one another and manage well.

souperk, (edited )
@souperk@reddthat.com avatar

This question reminded me of the Dr Stone anime. The premise is that a wave turns everyone into marble, several thousands years later a young scientist is unfrozen and uses science to restore society to its former state.

Also, I wonder what the effects of long term exposure to EMP would be to life on earth. Since most neurological systems use electromagnetic waves maybe they are impacted?

Another interesting question would be if there would be a way to work around the EMP. For example, would a Faraday cage work to allow electronics to work inside it? Or maybe electronics are improved to work under the effect of EMP? Like how the CPUs have bit correction algorithms because of random bit flips that occur due to solar flares.

Last but not least, in such a situation my plan would be to go as far away as possible, since there will be food shortages, being in an area where you can forage for food or hunt animals would be a priority. Then, I would probably die eating something poisonous. If I survive long enough to set up a farm, I would probably survive the next 10 years or so until I die of old age at 35 the new average life expectancy.

XYZinferno,

Absolutely love Dr. Stone, and love the comparison too

TheInsane42,
@TheInsane42@lemmy.world avatar

I think the biggest issue would be food. We have loads of farmers in the area and the bike is usable. However, to many people in the area and a lot of specialized crop.

With the canned food, I guess around a month, then it’ll get challeging.

afraid_of_zombies,

Indefinitely. What remains of my government will be drafting me into some forced labor group all us sparkies will be ordered to report.

redimk,
@redimk@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I wouldn’t be able to use more of my medication, so if I keep taking NSAIDS every day, then until I have kidney/liver failure. I don’t know how long would that be.

That’s of course not accounting for someone trying to murder me to get the NSAIDS they couldn’t get, or someone else trying to murder me for my belongings/food. Since I have arthritis I can’t really defend myself so… Yeah.

I did talk to my wife about this on one of those drunken conversations and we both agreed to just end it when we see no other way because we both need medication to live.

autumn_rain,

Medication would run out so probably about a month.

justlookingfordragon, (edited )
@justlookingfordragon@lemmy.world avatar

I have a bike and know how to repair it, so if there are materials availiable in case of an emergency, I would have a means of transport that doesn’t rely on electricity or gas. I’m a bit out of shape ATM but that’s a problem that would fix itself if I “had to” rely on a bike to get around.

I know how to build fires, chop and dry wood, sharpen an axe properly and there are lots of trees around these parts, so with a little extra work I would be able to stay warm and cook food. I think I even still have my grandpa’s old axe here somewhere.

My grandparents taught me how to preserve stuff properly; drying, pickling, smoking and canning raw foods, like fruit, veggies, fish, meat and mushrooms. I know how to grow and store potatoes properly - the only thing I’d need here would be a bit of fertile land and a cellar, but in case of a world wide disaster like that, it would probably not be that hard to find people willing to turn their lawn into a field and toss out obsolete electronics out of their cellar to store food there instead.

I know how to fish and I’m not that bad with a bow either (medieval enthusiast here), and I know how to quickly kill and properly prepare chickens, ducks and rabbits. No actual experience with bigger animals yet, but the basics are there and I’m not icky about getting my hands dirty. I know how to skin rabbits too, but I have not yet tried to make leather / pelts.

I am somwehat okay at identifying wild mushrooms, but not good enough to be 100% certain all the time, so that’s a point where I needed to be cautious.

There are plenty of small rivers around these parts, so drinking water might not be an issue, provided that stuff is actually safe to drink. Boiling doesn’t always remove all the nasty stuff, and I only have a very vague idea of how to build filters out of natural materials, so I would either need to experiment around, rely on the knowledge of others, or look it up on the then nonexistent internet.

I would definitely miss the internet and since I’m a total videogame nerd as well, it would suck big time to lose that hobby permanently, but as for sheer survival, I’m fairly certain I would make it for a while, especially if I could find other people to teach them what I know and build a small community. I can’t do ALL of the things mentioned above all on my own every single day for weeks or months on end, but if the knowledge is there and there are people willing to learn and do their share, I’m positive it would work out after a while.

The biggest issues would probably be medicine and other people: My knowledge about natural medicine is VERY limited - birch bark for pain and the like, but I wouldn’t be able to treat more serious injuries or diseases properly on my own. And since people as a whole tend to be assholes when presented with disastrous conditions, I would be very cautious about whom to trust. A lot of doomsday preppers seem to have the only plan of hoarding weapons and food and shooting others when running low on supplies so they can take other people’s stuff, and that’s nothing I would want to have to deal with.

PS: Just to mention it; I live in a somewhat rural area anyway. Plenty of people here still keep their own chickens, live in houses that still have wood stoves and “old timey” fireplaces, grow their own veggies and fruit, and I know at least two families around these parts that still have horse-drawn carriages and trained shirehorses (they offer rides for a fee for events, parties and the like). A lot of older folks here grew up on farms and have the respective knowledge still. We even have a “traditional” blacksmith and farrier here, as well as a hunting club with a couple dozen members. The knowledge of how to survive without elctricity is definitely there, a lot of non-electric tools as well, and everything else is just a matter of time and cooperation.

Medicine would still be an issue tho. (Insulin has been mentoined a couple of times already - you can’t just substitute traditional natural folk medicine for everything)

AWittyUsername,

If we can create fire we’d still have steam energy.

IamtheMorgz,

I feel like this is the kind of thing everyone overlooks in these kinds of scenarios. Thousands of people are going to be working on the problem. Okay, all our current electronics are fried, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make new ones. All our power plants and water treatment facilities suddenly don’t work… Well, people still have jobs at those places so someone is going to try to fix it. And I think most people sort of know and understand that, at least over the short term. Society doesn’t fall apart after every disaster.

And if it did, you’re probably wrong about how you’d respond or you’re not being creative and therefore are doing what everyone else will do and the resources will dry up and you won’t be one of the lucky few that makes it.

KevonLooney,

Well these questions are mostly for people to LARP about how tough and self-sufficient they are. No, society wouldn’t collapse because we didn’t have electricity for 99% of our time on Earth. Electricity was a luxury as recently as 100 years ago.

Number one issue is, can electronics be fixed? If yes, temporary issue. If not, and we are literally without power (for some magical reason) we just need a million more horses to cart food around. There wouldn’t be much looting. The new iPhone won’t work and how are you going to get away with anything bigger? Guns and locks still work without electricity.

I personally would start buying up property from people ignorantly fleeing cities. Most major cities are built on great harbors or waterways for sail and steam ships. People will try to farm, fail at it, and just buy from farmers like before. Food will move by boat first to major ports. Every prepper in the middle of nowhere will sit in a bunker eating canned vegetables while the rest of the world goes on with their lives.

You don’t actually need Facebook and Tik Tok. You won’t die without it. You’ll just read the same gossip in a magazine.

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