Allspace in a Notshall

Forget about a dirty or nuclear bomb or another 9/11. This is what we should really be worried about, Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe

IT IS midnight on 22 September 2012 and the skies above Manhattan are filled with a flickering curtain of colourful light. Few New Yorkers have seen the aurora this far south but their fascination is short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker, then become unusually bright for a fleeting moment. Then all the lights in the state go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power.

Over the last few decades, western civilisations have busily sown the seeds of their own destruction. Our modern way of life, with its reliance on technology, has unwittingly exposed us to an extraordinary danger: plasma balls spewed from the surface of the sun could wipe out our power grids, with catastrophic consequences.

There are two problems to face. The first is the modern electricity grid, which is designed to operate at ever higher voltages over ever larger areas. Though this provides a more efficient way to run the electricity networks, minimising power losses and wastage through overproduction, it has made them much more vulnerable to space weather. The high-power grids act as particularly efficient antennas, channelling enormous direct currents into the power transformers.

Click the link above to read the entire article, if you dare.

This is what I feel will lead to what everyone currently refers to as a zombie apocalypse.  But in this case, it’d be entirely real, and not that the zombies would be the undead, but rather just humans who have lived their entire lives in cities with power and electricity 24/7.  Now cut them off from it and you’ll see “society” and “civilization” quickly dissolve into every disaster movie you’ve ever seen or any post-apocalyptic book you’ve ever read.

Forget about terrorism, flying planes into buildings, blowing up planes, etc.  Start worrying about a world-wide blackout.

Related articles by Zemanta

• US Preps Cyber Outfit To Protect Electric Grid (it.slashdot.org)
• Pike Research Launches Smart Grid Advisory Service (eon.businesswire.com)
• Tantalus Closes $14 Million Funding Round to Deliver Proven Smart Grid Technology to Utilities (newswire.ca)

I just found a fascinating article while browsing LiveScience.com: Slime Mold Beats Humans at Perfecting Traffic Networks

The scientists let the mold organize itself and spread out around these nutrients, and found that it built a pattern very similar to the real-world train system connecting those cities around Tokyo. And in some ways, the amoeba solution was more efficient. What’s more, the slime mold built its network without a control center that could oversee and direct the whole enterprise; rather, it reinforced routes that were working, and eliminated redundant channels, constantly adapting and adjusting for maximum efficiency.

“The model captures the basic dynamics of network adaptability through interaction of local rules, and produces networks with properties comparable to or better than those of real-world infrastructure networks,” Wolfgang Marwan of Otto von Guericke University in Germany, who was not involved in the project, wrote in an accompanying essay in the same issue of Science.

Has everything already been done before?