Today, people, devices, computers are interconnected. You can contact other person whenever you want. You can find thousands of articles about a topic in seconds. People are getting used to having whenever they want in just few clicks. They text, send email, make searches on the web, use computers, watch TV, cook use the microwave. All these modern life habits are based on communication and electricity. The concept is so coupled that electrical facilities are also interconnected being able to communicate with each other. When one fails, it creates chaos on people life.
Last year (2009), Brazilians have experienced a huge blackout. After five hours, people were out of water because water pumps were powered off. Since the traffic lights were powered down, traffic jams were caused. People were unable to communicate; cell phone towers were not working because of the lack of electricity. Usually people only notice that something is important when they don't have it. Electrical power is among them.
Talking about communication, I notice that when a communication failure happens making people unable to access the internet, they feel disappointed. Being out of the internet for a long period causes an emptiness feeling. People feel as if they were not part of the world anymore. Not being able to check the email for some days causes anxiety and the impression that you are missing some important messages. Modern people are addicted on communication.
Reading an article on "The New York Times" [1] talking about a paper that reveals a theoretical attack on "a small U.S. power grid sub-network in a way that would cause a cascading failure of the entire U.S", it became clear to me that people must reduce their dependence on electrical facility system and communication networks. I don't mean that they must stop using electronic devices and become isolated from the world, neither I mean that a catastrophe will happen that the world will be in the darkness and on silence. I mean that we must find an alternative way for living when we are out of electricity and when communication devices fails, specially if this period is relatively long.
References
1. Paper in China Sets Off Alarms in U.S. By JOHN MARKOFF and DAVID BARBOZA
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