What if all technology was wiped out?

Yoshitsune

Imagine a scenario when a solar wave hits earth and disrupts all electrical and electronics leaving society without technology. Since we all use technology in our daily lives, how would you live with a event were to happen?

Here's a short video explaining a solar wave. >>>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2kDvrs2VEs

kneemos

No power,no fuel,no food. How long before anarchy prevails?

thegame983

Form Gangs. Round up the women. Kill the rival men and eat them.

Allinall

Other than people not being able to post crap on social media, we’d be grand.

Its only 50 years ago when there was virtually no technology.

They managed.

893bet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120637361#Comment_120637361

Millions, maybe billions would die.

Food production come to a complete halt.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120637361#Comment_120637361

Population was lower. We are in competition for resources now, electricity fuels the world, there would absolute anarchy and mass murders.

Hellrazer

Maybe my teenagers would actually answer me instead of having their heads stuck in a screen of some sort.

Lewis_Benson

You wouldn't be able to do anything.

Life would get very boring and depressing very fast.

Montage of Feck

Ireland would be in a relatively good position we are self sufficient in food, defensible position and a decent supply of turf.

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120637432#Comment_120637432

Can't produce food without power or fuel.

When hunger hits it's the law of the jungle.

It’s unthinkable how we’d regress to the state of affairs my great great grandparents lived with. People died young from now easily curable diseases thanks to advancing technology. We get to interconnect more, life is much more interesting but of course has new stressors. Taking breaks from technology is good, but FOMO keeps us hooked in a bit too much. If we are caught out of the radar someone will quickly ask you if you have been living under a rock the past few days. So there’s always that pressure to keep apace.

alias no.9

Go round to the local survavilists cellar, kill them and steal all their kit

Montage of Feck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120637442#Comment_120637442

Power for spuds and cabbage? Most of our meat is grass fed. Their will be an initial reduction in output as we move away from artificial fertiliser and go back to smaller scale farms.

Strumms

Food supply would be a major challenge…. Maybe THE major challenge…no refrigeration next to no transportation, next to no production..

no safe fuel storage ( needs to be temperature controlled ) couldn’t produce it either

no international or domestic air travel…. impossible to maintain aircraft, fuel aircraft, no ATC…

no healthcare…can’t operate in the dark, anaesthetics would run out….can’t monitor vitals, can’t perform scans / tests with no power…can’t run ventilators, perform blood transfusions etc…chemotherapy …

no entertainment… no tv, ps5, spotify, Netflix, iPads….

candles would be important be expensive…

id say anarchy personally…

A lot of theft, violence, breaking and entering….

army would need to become full time law enforcement…

Allinall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120637423#Comment_120637423

What?

you’d still be able to go for a walk, go for a pint, cut the grass, have a barbecue, play poker, walk the dog, etc. etc.

cj maxx

Go back to cutting turf and growing spuds and grass . A couple of bullocks in the freezer and you’re set

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120637498#Comment_120637498

Doubt the pints would be a goer, how do you brew beer ? Keg it, Transport it… ?

StupidLikeAFox

We need to stock up on post it notes and agree a place to go if boards goes down. We can write out post it notes and put them in sequential order on a lamppost or something. Mike and odhran can put in a sticker every now and then to keep the advertising going, and if someone writes something good you can just say thanks to them In person

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120637442#Comment_120637442

There will be a mad dash to buy horses.

StupidLikeAFox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120637442#Comment_120637442

I mean you can produce food it would just require a lot of manual labour. We would have lots of excess labour as all of the data analysts, programmers and consultants would be out of a job.

There would be a short, sharp shock where people would need to readjust their expectations and understand their value but I've no doubt we would find a way. As a species we have survived war, famines etc etc in the past without collapsing into chaos, there's no reason why society would just collapse under itself in these enlightened times

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120637633#Comment_120637633

We don't have the methods of distribution for food and heat they had back in the day. How would you feed and heat a million folk around Dublin for example?

I'm sure there would be plenty of survivors,but it would make the famine look like a picnic.

Potential-Monke

Twould probably be the time for me to bow out. The thoughts of having to socialise with people again... nah.

taxAHcruel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120637423#Comment_120637423

Dunno about that. But that is probably because the vast majority of every hobby or enjoyment I have in life - is unconnected to technology.

And actually some of the things I like to do might translate well if technology died - like hobby farming, keeping live stock, hunting, horse riding, bow and arrow work, martial arts, gun training and combat weapon training.

And failing all that I am also relatively good at running :)

I do very much love to cook however and a lot of aspects of that require good equipment and power. I could still do it without technology of course. But it would be very much curtailed.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120637400#Comment_120637400

Eeeeek. Often wondered how anyone could live with family like that :)

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120637361#Comment_120637361

We've had electricity for over 100 years at this stage and our entire economy is built on having access to cheap fuel and electricity. Think of the panic we had when COVID hit and people cleaned the shelves of toilet paper, milk and bread.

If electrical grids failed and we couldn't get them back, I'd say most of the country would die in 5 years and the rest would be back to the middle ages for the next 50.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120637633#Comment_120637633

Some of us survived war and famine, but this scenario would cause unprecedented war, famine and drought. The world population 100 years ago was 1 billion. We'd be back to that in a short space of time.

There's hardly a single person in the country who could farm without modern machinery and an easy source of seed and fertiliser. Your willing pool of tech nerd labour would be ploughing fields with their hands.

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120637475#Comment_120637475

Their will be an initial reduction in output as we move away from artificial fertiliser and go back to smaller scale farms.

Reduced output and smaller farms means we'd have the same chaos as everywhere else, we won't be self-sufficient for food without modern technology.

niallpatrick

Nature will always fill the void, somehow it'll do what needs done progressively over time in increments possibly meaning the mass extinction of humanity. There is footage of a tribe in the Amazon who had zero contact with the outside world, when anthropologists arrived their tribal leader stayed hidden and shouted. Their translator spoke a similar dialect and said best we do what they say and what was that? go back or we'll kill you. Feasible we'll go feral and wipe each other out.

Lewis_Benson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120637498#Comment_120637498

Your pints would be warm.

Tabnabs

Look what a bit of snow does to the inhabitants of Jobstown, we'd be screwed from social unrest.

Medicine would stop being produced and people would die from all sorts of preventable illnesses.

JupiterKid

Mod:-

Hi OP, just amended your thread title as at a glance it looks like a news story that all technology HAS been wiped out. 👍

I really don’t know how modern society would function without the hyper-connected situation we have today, but I suspect we’d muddle through - humans have an amazing capacity for resilience.

Perhaps people’s mental health would improve in the medium-term as we would be forced to actually interact with others in person and get out and about in nature as opposed to having our heads glued to our phones and other devices.

Apiarist

If a solar storm wipes out all electronics that is sensitive to it, it will take couple of days to restore power using backup diesel generators to few critical places, like selected hospitals. Almost all comms equipment used for internet/mobile comms will be unrepairable. Modern cars won't even start. It will take months to restore power generation and transmission in a country that is prepared for an EMP event (like the USA), it can take years in Ireland. In a few weeks, it can be possible to hack some trucks and cars to work. Old tractors should be able to work without problems.

There is enough land in Ireland to grow potatoes and other foods to feed everyone even if it means manual planting and harvesting for a couple of years, but people will need to disperse from Dublin into the countryside.

Hellrazer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120638774#Comment_120638774

Eeeeek. Often wondered how anyone could live with family like that :)

I wonder myself how we ever got through our teenage years without being so "connected" to each other.

To be honest they arent that bad - Id say probably a fair bit better than their friends who are connected 24/7 - we take their devices in the evenings and they arent allowed them after lights out time at all.

When we bring the furry babies out to Donadea / Blessington the phones stay at home so we try do that once a week or more.

Its difficult being a parent to teenagers in such a connected world to be honest. Theres a very fine line there between giving them complete connected freedom and monitoring their online usage.

silliussoddius

I'm sure the crypto promoters would find a way to sell some more sh!t coins.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120639633#Comment_120639633

I don't see it.

If a solar storm killed everything, then there's hardly a car or truck in the country that would start, and hardly a week of petrol or diesel to keep things moving.

If you needed a part for a machine, how would you know who to call, how would you call them, and how would your part get delivered?

How would you equip people with the tools, land, seed potatoes, and the farming know-how to plant food?

How do you keep people fed while you're waiting six months for food to grow?

Honestly, society would get maybe a week's grace, then fall apart.

Apiarist

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120640002#Comment_120640002

The amount of petrol and diesel would essentially be unlimited, since cars won't be able to use the fuel. Delivered parts? No, that would be impossible. It's more like skilled mechanics who know old cars using hammers and chisels to scavenge and fit parts from discarded cars.

All other problems can be solved with a very local self-government. Tools are available from garden shops and farm supplies shops. I personally can teach a few hundred people at a time (my voice can carry only that far) how to plant and harvest potatoes. Same potatoes that are bought in the shop can be used for seed. There is no need to wait for anything, farmers would have planted plants previously, what they would need is hundreds of workers to weed/harvest the crops in the absence of combine harvesters. The society can easily survive 6 months on a reduced diet.

sydthebeat

People in cities be fcuked

People in the country be grand

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120640273#Comment_120640273

...thank god agri equipment doesnt need power from fossil fuel supplies, including from the national grid!

cj maxx

With solar flares we could become holiday destination for the Northern Lights

Larbre34

We'd certainly be fortunate enough in Ireland that we could feed ourselves manually and gainfully occupy all our able bodied people in that effort, but the simple answer to a scenario like this being posited, is that the strongest and most innovative and most proactive and most resilient would survive and the rest may well be in bother.

jackboy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120640566#Comment_120640566

All shops would be looted and destroyed in a few days. Food would quickly run out so growing more food would be way too slow.

French Toast

There'd be pandemonium if we suddenly went back to the level of tech we had in the 90's, not to mind a complete wipeout.

TheIrishGrover

If we (globally) had to start from scratch then I think the world would lose 10% of population every 6 weeks. Would lose about 90%of first world population in a year. I don't think we will be all wearing studded leather within a year or Tina Turner would rule the world (RIP Aunty Enity) but I do believe it would be the end of civilisation as we know it. It's not just De Internet. All communication would die. From international to two doors down.

Could ireland become self sufficient? Possibly. But how do we scale up food production? Distribute food? How is it funded? Who grows it? How does an IT manager or HR consultant contribute to that world?

Ironically I believe that poorer, agri-based countries would have the best opportunity to survive.

I think if everything more advanced than a 1950's crystal radio died it would take the world 100 years to even begin to recover. To get to a turning point where things START to recover. After that, another 100 years to get back to 1970's tech buy with a MASSIVELY reduced global population... that is aiming that nuclear power plants just dying melt down within 12 hours.

Fun

TheIrishGrover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120640566#Comment_120640566

 most resilient would survive and the rest may well be in bother.

In bother? ..... in a stew most like. Lol

Capt'n Midnight

From 1978 so even back then you'd be up the creek without a paddle until you reinvented the ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPcZ_5uCldg

https://archive.org/details/james-burke-connections_s01e01 The day the universe changed is another good series.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/43561172

A really thought-provoking book, basically society would collapse very quickly.

Sleepy

Where and how you live would be the biggest factor in your survival I think. Middle of a tower block in a built up area? You're fucked. On a few acres in the arse end of nowhere? You'll probably be fine.

We live on the coast with fields behind the house so I think we'd survive okay... we have a modest garden, probably about 2 weeks of food in the house (although you'd end up eating fairly odd meals based on what'd spoil fastest), we also have a couple of kayaks and fishing rods so we'd be able to fish, grow some spuds & veg, forage for seaweed, berries etc. (I do that already to make blackberry wine every other autumn) . The house is over a hundred years old so, while I might have to unblock the previously bricked up fireplaces, it'd be easy enough to convert the house back to being liveable without central heating.

It's a thought experiment I like to think about regularly tbh. As per most of the post-apocalyptic fiction (zombie movies etc.), other people would be the greatest threat. I believe that if left to our own devices, we could survive pretty well, even better if the neighbours formed a co-op to bring some of the old land around us back into farming use (it was last farmed over 70 years ago and has been let go wild since).

For those interested in the topic, I'd recommend getting a copy of this (better a physical copy than one on Kindle in this scenario though ;) )

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Knowledge-How-Rebuild-World-Scratch/dp/1847922279

amacca

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120639633#Comment_120639633

They won't be "dispersing" here...

"Tis my field" and ill have no jackeen or yank telling me what to do inside these gates, I'll disperse them all right if they come near me🤠

Apiarist

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120641034#Comment_120641034

Sure, go ahead and pick those 20 acres of beets by yourself without the machine. Or weed the crops without the Glyphosate sprayer. Or milk 50 cows by hand, twice a day. Or deliver the milk even to the local village without a car. Or sleep at all with sheep being stolen from the hills. The best bet is to get city refugees in and show them how to work.

sydthebeat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120640281#Comment_120640281

Nope, a horse draw plough is actually horse powered :D

You seen to think the country side is there to provide food for the city .

I'm a technology less world that would not happen

amacca

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120641099#Comment_120641099

🤣 rather presumptuous! Fair enough, if that's what you think I'll be waiting.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120640254#Comment_120640254

On a small scale with 50 intelligent and level headed people and an empty town it would work.

On an actual scale where 1000 half starved and scared people descend onto every garden shop to fight over the 10 of every tool they have in stock at any one time? Not a chance.

Every animal would be slaughtered in a fortnight, the countryside would be stripped bare in a month and people would be starving to death within two months. No doubt.