WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: Tech in the Post Apocalyptic World (Part 2) 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.560 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, John, 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:17.440 that's Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:20.320 and how the tech are you? It is time for 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:22.880 a tech Stuff classic episode. It's also time for us 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.400 to continue last week's classic episode. So if you have 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:30.680 not listened to last Friday's episode that was called tech 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:34.480 in the post Apocalyptic World Part one, now we're gonna 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:38.040 listen to tech in the post Apocalyptic World Part two. 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:41.040 And Joe McCormick of Stuff to Blow your Mind joined 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:45.680 us for this episode. Hope you enjoy. We want to 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:48.360 go back to where we left off with our post 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:52.000 apocalyptic discussion. We will conclude this episode with our talk 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:59.040 of our favorite post apocalyptic stories and settings. So enjoy. Okay, 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:01.760 let's talk about our new clear facilities, because I know 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:05.760 I have at least heard or read that like a 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.479 nuclear reactor goes for a long time without needing refuel Yeah, 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:11.520 like more than a year. Yeah. So I mean, you've 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:14.120 got those rods in there, they're doing their things. You 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:16.720 don't need to replace them. But like the other plants, 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:21.000 this might just be an issue of maintenance and monitoring. Yeah. Um, 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:24.920 the I was reading the reports from our really the 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:28.160 estimations from someone who had worked in power plants, and 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.959 they had talked to various power plant engineers of different 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:35.560 types of plants UH to get their estimations. And when 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:38.319 they said, when I talk to the nuclear guys, they said, 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:41.520 are you crazy, because it was like, look, I'm just 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:45.360 trying to answer a question about zombie outbreaks. I'm not crazy. 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:49.600 And they said, well, maybe if everything went well, if 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:53.080 there were none of these little same thing, like, if 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:54.840 there were none of these alerts that pop up that 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:58.920 would necessitate a shutdown, you might go as long as 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:01.840 a week. And they're just looking at the probability of 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.400 one of these smaller events that would lead to an 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:08.400 automatic shutdown occurring. I said, you know, if a human 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:11.520 is there to deal with whatever the issue is, you 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:14.240 could go for more than a year without having to 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:17.720 worry about refueling. And after that it would be tricky 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:20.880 depending upon how many people are around, because it requires 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:23.919 a lot of special equipment to refuel a nuclear power plant. 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:26.800 But up to that point, you could supply power for 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:28.640 a year. But if there's no one there to monitor 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:32.240 it probably maybe a week would be about as long 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:36.000 as you could expect before something leads to an automatic shutdown. 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:39.920 So the best one so far. But then we have 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:44.720 the the best one of all. If you are getting 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:49.800 your power from a hydroelectric plant, assuming nothing's gone wrong 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:53.600 with the dam, then you are in great shape. I 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:57.160 mean doesn't need fuel. Yeah, your your energy is coming 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:59.960 from water flowing through those turbines. As long as nothing 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.239 a mechanical is going wrong with that, you could probably 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:06.760 get power for weeks or maybe even a month without 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:10.400 any interruption. Yeah. Now when would you have to have 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.880 major maintenance intervention? I guess it would maybe if the 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:16.800 if the water flow changed dramatically, if there was flooding 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:19.120 and you needed to change the levels of the floodgates 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:21.040 or something. There could be that, or it could even 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:24.040 be through the transmission of power, not even the generation, 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:26.480 but just the transmission lines. Like there are a lot 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.280 of different parts that are that are involved in this 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:32.840 and many different power plants. Like typically they would have 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:35.280 engineers come in and step up or step down the 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:38.720 amount of power being put out due to demand, like 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:42.280 the grid typically is making just as much electricity as 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:46.440 the demand. Warrants like it's that's it. Like, as much 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:48.400 as we need, that's what the power grid is providing. 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:51.320 In this situation, you no longer have someone there to 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:54.240 make sure that that's what's happening, so so problems could 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:58.040 result ultimately from that. You know. There are actually a 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:01.760 couple of different posts to pop elliptic movies and fictional 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:05.160 scenarios I can think of where the main goal certain 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:09.560 characters had was getting hydroelectric plants back up and running. Yeah, 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:11.760 I'm not surprised. I mean that to me would be 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.440 well again, it's it's the one where as long as 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:17.880 you have the mechanical knowledge of how to do repairs 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:22.160 and maintenance on the system, and uh just general knowledge 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:26.839 of how the transmission system works, it's the most reliable, right, 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:30.400 Like it's it's more reliable than solar or wind because 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.320 the water is always going to flow unless something really 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:38.440 major changes the nature of the the area, in which 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:40.840 case you probably have more things to worry about than 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:45.599 your electricity. Um uh. But otherwise, yeah, I would imagine 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:48.760 that would be a top priority. It's the simplest of 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:50.800 all the things. Because you think of things like coal, 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:53.880 you have to mind the coal. So even if you 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:57.120 even if you had people to keep moving coal into 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:00.640 the the power plant. Most coal fire ring plants have 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:04.480 enough coal on hand for sixty to seventy days of power. 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:07.240 So after that sixty to seventy days, even if you 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.240 had the people there to look after it, you would 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:12.080 have to then go and mind more coal. You have 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:13.640 to get your hands on more coal to keep the 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:16.440 coal plant going. So hydro electric makes way more sense 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:18.760 in that case. Yeah, I was trying to think what 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:23.000 different types of alternative or imagined power plants would be 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:26.840 the most resilient to Earth disasters, you know, whether it's zombies, 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:34.120 nuclear bombs, nuclear zombies, asteroid impact, cyber attacks. And the 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:36.760 one idea I came up with it was most interesting 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:42.239 to me at least, though perhaps wrong, is orbital solar Alright, 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:46.280 so let me take a guess what you mean. And 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:48.919 I'm literally guessing because I have not I have not 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:50.960 looked at these parts of the notes. You added this 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:54.520 while I was recording a different episode. So this would 0:05:54.600 --> 0:06:01.360 be a network of solar power capture ring satellites that 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:05.200 would then use a means like a microwave beam to 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:08.120 beam energy down to the surface of the planet, which 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:10.960 then would be distributed through a power grid. That's exactly right. 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:14.720 So you you've got solar farms, except you're moving the 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:18.440 solar farm itself from the surface of the Earth to orbit, 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:21.720 and that has some pretty obvious advantages. I mean, number one, 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.680 you're not dealing with cloud cover intercepting that that precious 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:29.400 solar energy you need. The receivers are out there in space, 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:32.120 so they're always getting sunlight. Also, you don't have night 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:37.440 time because at geosynchronous orbit, these things will almost never 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:39.880 be blocked from the Sun. They might pass, you know, 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:42.240 in the shadow of the Earth in very rare cases, 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.600 they don't spend much time in it. So these are 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:50.760 giant solar panels in space that can receive almost uninterrupted sunlight. 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.000 They convert the sunlight into d C electricity, which would 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:57.640 then be converted into some type of radiation that could 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:01.159 be sent via a targeted beam down to receiving stations 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:04.080 on Earth. And the two major candidates for the beam 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:08.920 radiation are lasers and microwaves, and microwaves are really where 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:12.920 it's at today, So these solar power satellites are usually 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:18.320 sps s in the industry. LINGO would be a really 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:22.240 daunting project to create because they have to be absolutely huge, 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:24.880 and you need a bunch of them to really cut 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:28.880 into Earth's energy demands. And there was a former Department 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:32.880 of Energy NASA joint research project from the nineteen seventies 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:37.480 that envisioned a fleet of sixty satellites, each one about 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:44.040 fifty five square kilometers in photovoltaic surface area uh together 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:49.720 all generating about three hundred gigawatts of electricity okay um. 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:52.560 So then of course there's the question of the wireless 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:56.640 energy transmission, which has been a problem historically, but we're 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:59.080 getting better at. In fact, just in the past few 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.840 years there have been some projects that are that are 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:04.880 making strides in this. In fact, I just read an 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.040 interesting article in the I tri Police Spectrum from last 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:12.080 year about Jackson that the Japanese Space Agency's plans to 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:16.160 possibly look into creating an orbital solar farm, and they're 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:20.920 doing preliminary research on that, like on these wireless energy transmissions, 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:23.680 and so these days it looks like most of the 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:27.280 people who are still interested in sps are talking about 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.560 microwaves rather than lasers, and so this would be a 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:35.000 microwave frequency transmission from the satellites to the Earth and 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:37.160 then the receivers on the Earth would be what things 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:41.120 that are called rectifying antennas, their antennas that receive the 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:45.480 microwaves and then convert them into electricity. The microwaves are 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:48.720 generally considered better than lasers for beaming the energy to 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:53.400 Earth because lasers in the visible spectrum or wherever they 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:56.640 would be, are more likely to be intercepted by cloud cover, 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:01.400 and the microwaves are much more resilient into penetrating the atmosphere. 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:06.000 Apparently low frequency microwaves, so the really long wavelengths are 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:09.240 the best at penetrating the atmosphere. They're they're much better, 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:11.000 but they of course come with the problem that you 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:15.960 need really big antenna's. Yeah, your antenna's size is uh 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:19.760 is reliant upon the length of the wave, the wavelength 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:24.000 of whatever you're trying to pick up. So I couldn't 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.400 exactly figure out how well the space based you know, 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:31.440 life root of the microwave beam would survive cloud cover 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.559 that was based on particulate matter instead of water vapor, 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:36.720 because I was trying to imagine, Okay, let's say there's 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:41.360 an asteroid impact, supervolcano eruption, or nuclear bombs create nuclear winter, 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.280 whatever it is that puts ash dust particles into the 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:47.800 atmosphere and blocks the sun. Would the microwaves from space 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:51.160 to be able to penetrate that any better than the 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:54.360 sunlight itself would just get to you know, solar panels 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:57.160 on your roof or in the desert, And I don't 0:09:57.160 --> 0:09:59.440 know the answer to that. That's one of those things 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:00.800 that probably doesn't come up in a lot of the 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:03.360 white papers on the project. So in the case of 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:07.880 nuclear winter, this would still provide power. So yeah, that's 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:12.400 just one interesting possibility of sort of like outsourcing our 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:17.040 our energy production needs away from the ground in places 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.800 where an earth based catastrophe might not touch them. Though 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:24.720 they're like I said, some scenarios that might interrupt power 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.280 from those sources or might not. It's hard to tell. 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:29.720 I mean, again, it all depends upon the nature of 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:32.280 the disaster, right, And of course you can still imagine 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:35.160 that some kind of space weather event could could very 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:38.719 well fry those satellites. Sure, yeah, solar flare might might 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:42.360 end up disrupting that, or it could be something on 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:47.200 the ground ends up frying the transmission infrastructure, not not 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:50.760 necessarily the receiving antenna, but just the means of getting 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:55.480 electricity from the receiver site to the places where it's needed. 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:57.880 If that's fried, then you know, you could still be 0:10:57.880 --> 0:10:59.800 generating electricity, but you can't get it to where it 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:01.640 needs to go. In other words, if the power lines 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:05.760 themselves are damaged as a result of whatever the catastrophe was, 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:08.800 then you're really you're still stuck. And and some of 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:10.400 the things that would come out of this, I mean 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:13.600 they're really pretty grim, like even the immediate effects. And 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:17.120 this is the people who have gone through blackouts, Uh 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:20.320 can talk about the these There was a big one 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:24.400 in UM two thousand three that had people trapped on subways, 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.680 had people trapped in elevators. You know, you couldn't things 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:31.800 that relied upon electricity for operation stopped, and then you know, 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:35.320 you could be in a place like an elevator where 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:39.400 you also no longer have climate control. Yeah, imagine getting 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:42.720 stuck in one of the elevators here during this month, 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:45.760 like Atlanta has been incredibly hot and humid this month, 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:48.080 So you're stuck in an elevator. Let's say there's like 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:51.320 seven other people in there with you. The elevator stops, 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:55.640 climate control stops after an hour or two, you know, 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.000 you are already with a bunch of other people crammed 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:02.240 in this small space. That's gonna get in tall, terribly hot. Um. 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:03.959 And I mean they can get to a point, depending 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:06.320 upon where you are, I can get to a you know, 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:09.440 a point that's that's very dangerous, particularly for people who 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:13.760 are already in poor health. Uh. Subways similar problem. You know, 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:17.240 you don't necessarily want to immediately evacuate the train if 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:21.720 it's a temporary power problem. Then once that comes back online, 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.000 you've got that third rail that would be of deadly 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:28.400 to come into contact with it. So it's one of 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:32.880 those things that you definitely need an evacuation plan. Uh. 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.959 I've read that if you had a blackout that lasted 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:40.360 longer than a few days, like a true blackout that 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:42.400 lasted longer than a few days in New York City, 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:46.240 then the many of the subways would end up having 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.120 flooding issues because they no longer would have some pumps 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:51.760 that would pump water out. Yeah. I've read the same thing. Yeah, 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.240 they have to be pumped out every single day. Yeah, 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:56.520 even if it's a day that's there's no rain, they 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:59.120 still have to be pumped out. So then you you 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.120 have infrastruct your problems that once the power comes online, 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:05.600 that electricity going through the areas that have water that 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.600 can actually end up causing debreed to catch on fire. 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:10.160 And then you've got fire on the tracks as well. 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:12.840 I mean there's lots of issues that roll out just 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:16.760 from losing power. That sounds like a great like folk 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:22.640 album title fire on the Tracks, it's the lost Johnny 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:25.840 Cash album. Uh. Also, you got you have issues with 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:28.800 traffic because if all the traffic signals are out, then 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:33.199 there's no way to regulate traffic. Yeah, Joe, I'm sure 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:37.440 you've driven in Atlanta after there's been power outages where Yeah, 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:39.840 how how lovely is it to come up to one 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.520 of those intersections? Well? Are now? Are you talking about 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:48.800 the intersections that have the flashing lights or it's just blank, 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:52.400 It's just blank. I've come on that too. It's not fun. 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:56.680 People are eager for their turn. Yeah, there are times 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.320 where like it's odd. I don't know if this is 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.920 the case in lots of different cities, but in Atlanta, Uh, 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.720 people either treat everything like it's a four way stop, 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:07.840 even if it's a blinking yellow light, which means proceed 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:11.679 with caution, not stop. Um, but people will treat everything 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:13.080 like it's a four way stop, or they treat like 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:16.440 nothing is a Moore Wi stop, and either way it's 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.960 not good. And just imagine like this is nationwide. You've 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:22.680 got no means of regulating the traffic. You also have 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:26.880 no way of of being able to have emergency responders 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:28.600 get to where they need to go in a in 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.480 a fast way because everything's clogged up with traffic as 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:34.720 people are trying to get home, or people are worried 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.720 about how much fuel they have. That's another big issue 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:40.560 if the electricity goes out. Most fueling stations, in fact, 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:44.360 nearly all of them required electricity to operate, so you 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:47.880 can't refuel your vehicle, but you can siphon someone else's 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:52.240 and that might end up being an issue too. Uh yeah, 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:55.720 so uh, cell phone service might go out. A lot 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.080 of cell phone towers have backup generators, but that will 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:00.520 only last as long as the fuel does. Not all 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:03.480 cell phone towers have backup generators, so once it goes out, 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:06.120 there offline, which means your phone might work, but the 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:07.920 person you're trying to call they might not have a 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:10.160 working cell phone tower and range. And then of course 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:14.800 remember that in many major catastrophes and events, you're gonna 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:18.120 have so many people trying to access the cellular system 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:22.400 they're flooding it. We've seen that happen. We've seen that 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:25.200 have even in even in non emergency situations when there's 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:27.680 just a large number of people, like when c e 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:30.440 s happens every year are Comic Con. There's so many 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:33.520 people trying to connect to the local network that it 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:36.760 just overloads it and nothing goes out, uh, and nothing 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:40.520 comes in. It's like the Willy Wonka factory before they 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:42.760 opened it up with the golden tickets. Nobody ever goes 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:45.320 in and nobody ever comes out. Uh. Yeah, So it's 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.880 it's a pretty grim situation. We'll talk a little bit 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:54.320 more about um possible uh the possible toll in just 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:57.200 a bit, But before we do that, let's talk also 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:00.160 about some of the other systems that because of the 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:03.440 power outage, would be affected. We we just touched on one, 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:09.360 the communication system. So satellites would largely be unaffected by 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.680 any Earth based catastrophe. If it were a solar flare, 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.560 then obviously satellites would be Actually they'd be the most 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.280 vulnerable the further out you are, the more vulnerable you 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:22.760 are to to like a solar flare or coronal mass ejection. UM. 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:26.360 Then you know, you could end up having the electronics 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:30.120 fried on the satellites. A lot of them are shielded 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:32.840 pretty heavily for that sort of stuff, because it's more 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:34.800 likely to happen to a satellite than it is to 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:38.480 electronics here on Earth. But a truly powerful one, and 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.320 there have been some in the past, could really overwhelm 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:45.200 those satellites. UM. Anything connected to the power grid obviously 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:50.200 would be uh, it would be vulnerable. So uh, you 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:52.680 might be able to get radio signals if you have 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:54.960 a battery operated radio, which, by the way, you should 0:16:55.000 --> 0:17:00.400 have a battery operated radio. Handk Yeah, hand Craig operated 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:03.720 radio would be great to uh, either of those are both. 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:06.080 You know, there are a lot of combination systems out 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:07.800 there where you can get one that works on either 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.880 battery or hand crank. I recommend having one of those. 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:14.439 Of course, that will only last as long as the 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:18.960 radio broadcasting power has you know, has a supply of 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:23.080 power from whatever source it's pulling it from, like a generator, 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:25.800 a backup generator. Once the backup generators out of fuel, 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.080 if the blackout continues, then that's gonna go dark too. 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:33.360 So communications might last a little longer than the power does, 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:37.359 but not it won't be indefinite. Um. I've also seen 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:41.240 people recommend that you go ahead and invest in walkie 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:47.520 talkies because they can provide for communication over sometimes miles 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:51.560 of distance, uh and could be invaluable depending upon where 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:56.080 you are. So uh, cell phone towers and radio stations 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:00.000 will all go offline eventually. Are actually some developing nations 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.280 that are making certain that their cell phone towers are 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:06.040 not on the power grid at all, either because there's 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:10.080 not a power grid in those remote locations or it's 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:13.240 just so unreliable that in order to have a stable 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:18.840 communication systems own power supply. The A lot of them 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:21.000 are running on their own generators, and many of them 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:25.960 are using solar power as a primary means for generating 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:30.000 electricity for during the daylight hours. So it's pretty interesting 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:32.439 and we could take a note from that, like we 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:36.439 could start building out infrastructure to be robust in that 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:40.800 same way and independent in that same way. Uh. And 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:43.719 you know, like I said, just because you have access 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:45.920 doesn't mean everybody else, you know does. It could still 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:47.679 end up being a big issue and you might not 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:50.280 be able to get in touch with anybody. We'll be 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:52.879 back with more of this classic episode of tech stuff 0:18:52.920 --> 0:19:05.560 after this quick break. So that's power and communications. But 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:07.720 you know, there are other things that we rely upon 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:11.760 that we take for granted, like, hey, have you ever 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:14.080 gone up to a faucet and turned on the knob 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:17.560 and nothing came out? I've done that in my home before. 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:21.800 Isn't that a terrifying experience. Yeah, it's It's especially bad 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:24.480 when it's like your mouth is full of toothpaste. Yes, 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:28.000 that's not that's not good. Yeah. Um. Running water is 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:30.040 one of those things that we often take for granted. 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:33.480 And uh uh, if the paragrid system is down, running 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:36.760 water will follow, maybe not immediately. You might actually be 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:40.399 able to have running water for a day, maybe a 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:41.919 little bit longer. If you happen to live in a 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:44.479 place that has a lot of water in its pipes 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:47.160 like New York City actually could potentially hold a couple 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:50.199 of days worth of water in their pipes. Um, just 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:52.639 because that the water pressure that's built up and the 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:56.840 water supplies are enough to go for another couple of days, 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:01.680 assuming that everyone's not immediately thinking oh humanities, every container 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:04.679 in the house. Yeah, or which I mean, honestly, if 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:07.680 I thought, if I thought that the apocalypse was happening, 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:10.359 the first thing I would do is fill up every 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:13.480 container in the house with water. Yeah, me too. Also, 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:15.879 I'd want to run the washing machine to clean on 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:20.520 my underwear because I'm sure that it was very recently soiled. Uh, 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:22.479 that's all scared that would be I would soil not 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:26.240 just the underwhere I was wearing, but every pair I own. Um, 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:29.960 but no, you would you would think that that would 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:34.399 very quickly eliminate the supplied water. In the United States, 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:38.119 we mostly are creating our water pressure through water tanks. 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:42.160 The water tanks are elevated. Um. It's funny. There's actually 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:47.480 a very specific formula. Every every foot of height provides 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:50.320 point for three one pounds per square inch of pressure. 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:53.800 So if we want to convert that to the metric system, 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:56.480 for every thirty point four eight centimeters you get two 0:20:56.480 --> 0:21:01.480 point nine seven two kilo pascals of pressure. Uh, that 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:03.000 means nothing to me. I have to do the prounds 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:05.840 of the pressure that the per square inch of pressure. 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:08.440 But a municipal water supplies run between fifty and a 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:13.560 p s I or three to six kilo pascals, and 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:16.920 most water towers contain enough water to supply the surrounding 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:25.600 community for a day, assuming normal, not that everybody is trying. Yeah, 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:29.400 so the problem is that to refill those water tanks, 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:33.720 you have to pump water up to those and yeah, 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:37.119 those pumps maybe running on electricity, so if they're not 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:39.960 running on electricity, they're running on fuel. So either they're 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:43.520 running on electricity and therefore you can't use them anymore 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:46.760 because the grid is offline. So once the water's gone, 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:49.520 it's gone, or they're running on fuel. And then once 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:53.240 your fuel runs out because you aren't able to transport 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:57.600 or refine more of it or or get your hands 0:21:57.640 --> 0:22:00.560 on more of it, the water runs out. Either way, 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:04.000 the water runs out. It's just a question of time. So, uh, 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:06.719 that's a huge issue. So it would really make you 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:09.760 wish that you had access to clean well water, and 0:22:09.800 --> 0:22:12.040 you might depending on where you are. Like we live 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:15.440 in an urban environment, we don't have access to clean 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:17.399 well water. I think, I don't know, you don't have 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:20.960 a well in your backyarddea. If I do have one, 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:23.040 I don't know about it, But I don't know. There's 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:25.639 some weird stuff buried back there. Yeah. It all depends 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:27.520 on how often you do yard work, you know, Like, yeah, 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:31.720 I don't know what's back underneath that mass. Sometimes ghostly 0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:35.159 creatures come crawling out of my backyard, so I don't know. 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:39.040 Oldridge horrors are not necessarily an indication that there is 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:42.800 a well in the nearby area. It's a common misconception. 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:46.720 Uh yeah. So unless you have access to clean water, 0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:50.800 that's gonna be a huge, huge problem. And for much 0:22:50.920 --> 0:22:53.000 of the population of the United States, that is in 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:56.720 fact a huge problem that you don't you know, you 0:22:56.760 --> 0:22:59.679 don't necessarily live near a place where you can reliably 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:04.840