Infrastructure Collapse: Part One
Old Horseman - a grim reminder of how dependent most of us, yours truly included, are on our fragile technological infrastructure.
I drive one of the last vehicles manufactured with a hand crank for auxiliary starting. I almost always start it with the electric starter, but knowing I can still get it started if the battery goes dead or the starter hangs up gives me a certain peace of mind.
I also have developed, and continue to improve, my ability to live in reasonable comfort in a post-infrastructure world... Both in terms of pre-infrastructure (think 19th Century) capabilities, and modern infrastructure-independent technology.
I still enjoy modern infrastructure. But I don't rely on it for survival.
I have only one nit with this article:
Think about it. 19 guys with box cutters brought America to a screeching halt for weeks, justified a double war, and messed up the economy for years. A storm hits the Gulf Coast, and we're waiting in lines around the block to pay triple price for gas.
Nineteen guys with box cutters did not bring America to a halt. They knocked down a few buildings, and killed a couple of thousand people. Without television and a fear-mongering government, most of us would never have noticed. It was the goverment response to the incident that brought the country to a halt.
Part Two talks briefly about how the interelatedness of our technology and could make a problem like peak oil, which alone we could deal with, into a civilization-collapsing disaster.
Previous Posts:
Shiver Me Timbers! A Proud Bubblepack Pirate I Be!
JAP - Anonymous Web Proxy
Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Dismissal of the Claims of a Biological Connection for Natural Petroleum
Stopping Power and Cartridge Selection Philosophy
So, What's Under Your Eotech Holosight?
The War on Dissent Gets Creepy
Breaking News on the Steve Kubby Case
R.I.P. Bark
The Digital Universe