WEBVTT - Tech in the Post Apocalyptic World (Part 2) 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:15.000 Technology text from dot com You welcome to text to 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.400 buy job in Strickland. And with me once again is 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:21.439 Joe McCormick. Hello everyone, Joe, you and I have had 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:26.960 a loue long conversation about the post apocalyptic state of 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:30.600 affairs and how that deals with technology. So long in fact, 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:33.800 that we suddenly discovered we've been walking through the desert 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:37.280 looking for gasoline for five hours and that horse still 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:40.559 has no name. So we want to go back to 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:43.680 where we left off with our post apocalyptic discussion. We 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:46.600 will conclude this episode with our talk of our favorite 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:53.400 post apocalyptic stories and settings, So enjoy. Okay, let's talk 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:56.280 about our nuclear facilities, because I know I have at 0:00:56.360 --> 0:01:00.520 least heard or read that, like a nuke, your reactor 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:03.440 goes for a long time without needing refuel. Yeah, like 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:05.600 more than a year. Yeah. So, I mean, you've got 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.240 those rods in there, they're doing their things. You don't 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:10.760 need to replace them. But like the other plants, this 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:14.880 might just be an issue of maintenance and monitoring. Yeah. Um. 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:18.800 The I was reading the reports from or really the 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.039 estimations from someone who had worked in power plants, and 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:25.880 they had talked to various power plant engineers of different 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:30.080 types of plants to get their estimations. And when they said, 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:32.520 when I talk to the nuclear guys, they said, are 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:35.640 you crazy, because it was like, look, I'm just trying 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:39.240 to answer a question about zombie outbreaks. I'm not crazy. 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:43.479 And they said, well, maybe if everything went well, if 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:46.960 there were none of these little same thing, like, if 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:48.720 there were none of these alerts that pop up that 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:52.800 would necessitate a shutdown, you might go as long as 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:55.480 a week. And they're they're just looking at the probability 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:58.160 of one of these smaller events that would lead to 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:01.920 an automatic shutdown occurring. I said, you know, if a 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:04.840 human is there to deal with whatever the issue is, 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:08.040 you could go for more than a year without having 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:11.120 to worry about refueling. And after that it would be 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:14.360 tricky depending upon how many people are around, because it 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:17.160 requires a lot of special equipment to refuel a nuclear 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:20.320 power plant. But up to that point, you could supply 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:21.959 power for a year. But if there's no one there 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:25.880 to monitor it, probably maybe a week would be about 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:28.880 as long as you could expect before something leads to 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:33.000 an automatic shutdown. So the best one so far, But 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:37.839 then we have the the best one of all if 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:42.760 you are getting your power from a hydroelectric plant, assuming 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:45.960 nothing's gone wrong with the dam, then you are in 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:51.320 great shape. Fuel. Yeah, your your energy is coming from 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:54.760 water flowing through those turbines. As long as nothing mechanical 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:58.000 is going wrong with that, you could probably get power 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:02.760 for weeks or maybe even a month without any interruption. Yeah. Now, 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:06.400 when would you have to have major maintenance intervention? I 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:08.919 guess it would maybe if the if the water flow 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:11.360 changed dramatically, if there was flooding and you needed to 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:13.959 change the levels of the floodgates or something. There could 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:16.040 be that, or it could even be through the transmission 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:19.400 of power, not even the generation, but just the transmission lines. 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:22.200 Like there are a lot of different parts that are 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:25.200 that are involved in this and many different power plants. 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:28.200 Like typically they would have engineers come in and step 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:30.480 up or step down the amount of power being put 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:34.440 out due to demand, Like the grid typically is making 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:38.120 just as much electricity as the demand warrants, Like it's 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:41.120 that's it, like as much as we need, that's what 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:43.920 the power grid is providing. In this situation, you no 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:46.720 longer have someone there to make sure that that's what's happening. 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:51.040 So so problems could result ultimately from that. You know, 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:55.000 there are actually a couple of different post apocalyptic movies 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.160 and fictional scenarios I can think of where the main 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:02.000 goal certain characters had was getting hydroelectric plants back up 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:04.920 and running. Yeah, I'm not surprised. I mean that to 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:08.800 me would be well again, it's it's the one where 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:10.960 as long as you have the mechanical knowledge of how 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:14.760 to do repairs and maintenance on the system, and uh 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:19.400 just general knowledge of how the transmission system works, it's 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.680 the most reliable, right, Like it's it's more reliable than 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:25.320 solar or wind because the water is always going to 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:31.640 flow unless something really major changes the nature of the area, 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:34.360 in which case you probably have more things to worry 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:38.920 about than your electricity. Um uh. But otherwise, yeah, I 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:41.880 would imagine that would be a top priority. It's the 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.200 simplest of all the things because you think of things 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.479 like coal. You have to mind the coal. So even 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:50.279 if you even if you had people to keep moving 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:54.440 coal into the the power plant, most coal firing plants 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:57.760 have enough coal on hand for sixty to seventy days 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:01.080 of power. So after that sixty seventy days, even if 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:03.920 you had the people there to look after it. You 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:05.839 would have to then go and mind more coal. You 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:07.400 have to get your hands on more coal to keep 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:10.080 the coal plant going. So hydro electric makes way more 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:12.479 sense in that case. Yeah, I just trying to think 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:16.800 what different types of alternative or imagined power plants would 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:20.000 be the most resilient to Earth disasters, you know, whether 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:26.359 it's zombies, nuclear bombs, nuclear zombies, asteroid impact, cyber attacks. 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:29.880 And the one idea I came up with it was 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:33.640 most interesting to me at least, though perhaps wrong, is 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:38.920 orbital solar all right, so let me take a guess 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:41.839 what you mean. And I'm literally guessing because I have 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:44.159 not I have not looked at these parts of the notes. 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:46.440 You added this while I was recording a different episode. 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:54.040 So this would be a network of solar power capturing 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:58.160 satellites that would then use a means like a microwave 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.760 beam to beam energy down to the surface of the planet, 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:04.160 which then would be distributed through a power grid. That's 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.960 exactly right. So you you've got solar farms, except you're 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:11.320 moving the solar farm itself from the surface of the 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:14.920 Earth to orbit, and that has some pretty obvious advantages. 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:17.520 I mean Number one, you're not dealing with cloud cover 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:22.359 intercepting that that precious solar energy you need. The receivers 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:25.240 are out there in space, so they're always getting sunlight. Also, 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:29.839 you don't have night time because at geosynchronous orbit, these 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:32.800 things will almost never be blocked from the Sun. They 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:34.840 might pass, you know, in the shadow of the Earth 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:38.000 in very rare cases, they don't spend much time in it. 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:42.560 So these are giant solar panels in space that can 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:46.479 receive almost uninterrupted sunlight. They convert the sunlight into d 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:50.040 C electricity, which would then be converted into some type 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:53.360 of radiation that could be sent via a targeted beam 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:56.719 down to receiving stations on Earth. And the two major 0:06:56.800 --> 0:07:01.240 candidates for the beam radiation are lasers and microwaves, and 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:05.080 microwaves are really where it's at today, So these solar 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:10.000 power satellites are usually sps s in the industry. LINGO 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:14.400 would be a really daunting project to create because they 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.600 have to be absolutely huge and you need a bunch 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:21.480 of them to really cut into Earth's energy demands. And 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:25.200 there was a former Department of Energy NASA joint research 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:28.200 project from the nineteen seventies that envisioned a fleet of 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:34.000 sixty satellites, each one about fifty five square kilometers in 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:40.360 photovoltaic surface area uh together all generating about three hundred 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:45.320 gigawatts of electricity okay um. So then of course there's 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.800 the question of the wireless energy transmission, which has been 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:52.000 a problem historically, but we're getting better at. In fact, 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:54.400 just in the past few years there have been some 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:58.160 projects that are that are making strides in this. In fact, 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:00.440 I just read an interesting article in the I tri 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:04.160 Police Spectrum from last year about Jackson that the Japanese 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:09.080 Space Agency's plans two possibly look into creating an orbital 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:12.400 solar farm, and they're doing preliminary research on that, like 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:16.840 on these wireless energy transmissions, and so these days it 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:18.920 looks like most of the people who are still interested 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:23.480 in sps are talking about microwaves rather than lasers. And 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:27.120 so this would be a microwave frequency transmission from the 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:29.920 satellites to the Earth, and then the receivers on the 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:33.079 Earth would be what things that are called rectifying antennas, 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:36.840 their antennas that receive the microwaves and then convert them 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:41.439 into electricity. The microwaves are generally considered better than lasers 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:45.120 for beaming the energy to Earth because lasers in the 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:48.640 visible spectrum or wherever they would be, are more likely 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:53.240 to be intercepted by cloudcover, and the microwaves are much 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:57.320 more resilient to penetrating the atmosphere. Apparently low frequency microwaves, 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:01.520 so the really long wavelengths are the best at penetrating 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:03.920 the atmosphere. They're they're much better, but they of course 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:07.760 come with the problem that you need really big antenna's. Yeah, 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:12.080 your antenna's size is uh is reliant upon the length 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:14.760 of the wave, the wavelength of whatever you're trying to 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:19.440 pick up. So I couldn't exactly figure out how well 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:23.280 the space based you know, life root of the microwave 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:26.920 beam would survive cloud cover that was based on particulate 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:30.000 matter instead of water vapor, because I was trying to imagine, Okay, 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:34.000 let's say there's an asteroid impact, supervolcano eruption, or nuclear 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:36.720 bombs create nuclear winter, whatever it is that puts ash 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.199 dust particles into the atmosphere and blocks the sun. Would 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:44.040 the microwaves from space be able to penetrate that any 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:47.440 better than the sunlight itself would just get to you know, 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:50.520 solar panels on your roof or in the desert, and 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:52.920 I don't know the answer to that. Yeah, that's one 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:54.360 of those things that probably doesn't come up in a 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:56.840 lot of the white papers on the subject. So in 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:59.800 the case of nuclear winter, this would still provide power. 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:04.120 So yeah, that's just one interesting possibility of sort of 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:09.800 like outsourcing our our energy production needs away from the 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.360 ground in places where an earth based catastrophe might not 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:16.960 touch them. Though they're like I said, some scenarios that 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:20.559 might interrupt power from those sources or might not. It's 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:22.959 hard to tell. I mean, again, it all depends upon 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:25.200 the nature of the disaster, right, And of course you 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:28.080 can still imagine that some kind of space weather event 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:31.559 could could very well fry those satellites. Sure, yeah, solar 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:35.720 flare might might end up disrupting that, or it could 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:40.600 be something on the ground ends up frying the transmission infrastructure, 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:44.040 not not necessarily the receiving antenna, but just the means 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:48.640 of getting electricity from the receiver site to the places 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.280 where it's needed. If that's fried, then you know, you 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:53.400 could still be generating electricity, but you can't get it 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:54.840 to where it needs to go. In other words, if 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:57.520 the power lines themselves are damaged as a result of 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.400 whatever the catastrophe was. Then you're really you're still stuck. 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:03.800 And and some of the things that would come out 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.120 of this, I mean they're really pretty grim, like even 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:09.040 the immediate effects. And this is the people who have 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:13.520 gone through blackouts, Uh can talk about the these There 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:16.400 was a big one in UM two thousand three that 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.880 had people trapped on subways, had people trapped in elevators. 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:22.840 You know, you couldn't things that relied upon electricity for 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:26.560 operation stopped, and then you know, you could be in 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:30.480 a place like an elevator where you also no longer 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.719 have climate control. Yeah, imagine getting stuck in one of 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:37.800 the elevators here during this month, like Atlanta has been 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.679 incredibly hot and humid this month. So you're stuck in 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:42.840 an elevator. Let's say there's like seven other people in 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:48.000 there with you. The elevator stops, climate control stops. After 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:50.520 an hour or two, you know, you are already with 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:52.720 a bunch of other people crammed in this small space 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:56.719 that's gonna get intolerably hot. Um. And that I mean 0:11:56.720 --> 0:11:58.800 they can get to a point, depending upon where you are, 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:00.840 I could get to a you know a point that's 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.280 that's very dangerous, particularly for people who are already in 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:08.480 poor health. Uh, subways similar problem. You know, you don't 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:11.480 necessarily want to immediately evacuate the train if it's a 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:15.800 temporary power problem. Then once that comes back online, you've 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:20.040 got that third rail that would be of deadly to 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:22.440 come into contact with it. So it's one of those 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:27.880 things that you definitely need an evacuation plan. Uh. I've 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.200 read that if you had a blackout that lasted longer 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.600 than a few days, like a true blackout that lasted 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:37.120 longer than a few days in New York City, then 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.679 the many of the subways would end up having flooding 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:43.040 issues because they no longer would have some pumps that 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:45.640 would pump water out. Yeah, I've read the same thing. Yeah, 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:48.120 they have to be pumped out every single day. Yeah, 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:50.440 even if it's a day that's there's no rain, they 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.000 still have to be pumped out. So then you you 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:56.640 have infrastructure problems that once the power comes online, that 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:59.640 electricity going through the areas that have water that can 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:02.559 actually end up causing debreed to catch on fire. And 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:04.120 then you got fire on the tracks as well. I 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:07.000 mean there's lots of issues that roll out just from 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:11.600 losing power. That sounds like a great like folk album title, 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.800 Fire on the Tracks, Fire on the Track, it's the 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:19.240 lost Johnny Cash album. Uh. Also, you got you have 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.560 issues with traffic because if all the traffic signals are out, 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:26.800 then there's no way to regulate traffic. Yeah, Joe, I'm 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:30.240 sure you've driven in Atlanta after there's been power outages 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:33.480 where Yeah, how how lovely is it to come up 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:35.760 to one of those intersections? Well? Are now? Are you 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:40.200 talking about the intersections that have the flashing lights? Let's 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:44.600 or it's just blank, It's just blank. I've come on 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:49.040 that too. It's not fun. People are eager for their turn. Yeah, 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:52.680 there there are times where like it's odd. I don't 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:54.840 know if this is the case in lots of different cities, 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:58.840 but in Atlanta, Uh, people either treat everything like it's 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:00.960 a four way stop, even if it's a blinking yellow light, 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:04.840 which means proceeded with caution, not stop. Um. But people 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:06.439 will treat everything like it's a more y stop or 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:08.400 do they treat like nothing is a more rated up? 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:11.840 And either way it's not good. And just imagine like 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:16.040 this is nationwide you've got no means of regulating the traffic. 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:18.320 You also have no way of of being able to 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.960 have emergency responders get to where they need to go 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:24.760 in a in a fast way because everything's clogged up 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:27.360 with traffic as people are trying to get home, or 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.840 people are worried about how much fuel they have. That's 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:33.960 another big issue if the electricity goes out. Most fueling stations, 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:37.320 in fact, nearly all of them required electricity to operate, 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.760 so you can't refuel your vehicle, but you can siphon 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:45.160 someone else's and that might end up being an issue too. 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:49.240 Uh yeah, so uh, cell phone service might go out. 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:51.720 A lot of cell phone towers have backup generators, but 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:53.480 that will only last as long as the fuel does 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:56.720 not all cell phone towers have backup generators, so once 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:59.840 it goes out, there offline, which means your phone might work, 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:01.480 but a person you're trying to call they might not 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:03.600 have a working cell phone tower and range. And then, 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:08.280 of course, remember that in many major catastrophes and events, 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:10.720 you're gonna have so many people trying to access the 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:16.040 cellular system they're flooding it. We've seen that happen. We've 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.720 seen that have even in even a non emergency situations 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:21.280 when there's just a large number of people, like when 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:24.000 c e S happens every year or Comic Con, there's 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:26.960 so many people trying to connect to the local network 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:30.200 that it just overloads it and nothing goes out, uh, 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.920 and nothing comes in. It's like the Willy Wonka factory 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:36.320 before they opened it up with the golden tickets. Nobody 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:38.800 ever goes in and nobody ever comes out. Uh. Yeah, 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:42.360 so it's it's a pretty grim situation. We'll talk a 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:47.160 little bit more about um possible uh, the possible toll 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:50.400 in just a bit, But before we do that, let's 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:53.840 talk also about some of the other systems that because 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:56.560 of the power outage, would be affected. We we just 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:01.920 touched on one the communication system. So satellites would largely 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:05.600 be unaffected by any Earth based catastrophe. If it were 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.840 a solar flare, then obviously satellites would be Actually they'd 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:11.320 be the most vulnerable. The further out you are, the 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:14.080 more vulnerable you are to to like a solar flare 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:18.560 or coronal mass ejection. UM. Then you know you could 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:22.040 end up having the electronics fried on the satellites. A 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:25.080 lot of them are shielded pretty heavily for that sort 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:27.840 of stuff, because it's more likely to happen to a 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:30.760 satellite than it is to electronics here on Earth. But 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:33.240 a truly powerful one, and there have been some in 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:37.960 the past, could really overwhelm those satellites. Uh. Anything connected 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:42.239 to the power grid obviously would be it would be vulnerable. 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:46.200 So uh, you might be able to get radio signals 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:48.480 if you have a battery operated radio, which, by the way, 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:53.600 you should have a battery operated radio. Hand Yeah, hand 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:56.880 crank operated radio would be great to Uh, either of 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:58.920 those are both. You know, there are a lot of 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:01.040 combination systems up there where you can get one that 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:04.320 works on either battery or hand rank I recommend having 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:07.640 one of those. Of course, that will only last as 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:12.360 long as the radio broadcasting power has, you know, has 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:16.120 a supply of power from whatever source it's pulling it from, 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.160 like a generator, a backup generator. Once the backup generators 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:22.240 out of fuel, if the blackout continues, then that's going 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:26.040 to go dark too. So communications might last a little 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:30.359 longer than the power does, but not it won't be indefinite. Um. 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:34.240 I've also seen people recommend that you go ahead and 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:39.600 invest in walkie talkies because they can provide for communication 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:44.280 over sometimes miles of distance, uh, and could be invaluable 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:48.800 depending upon where you are. So uh, cell phone towers 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:53.000 and radio stations will all go offline eventually. Are actually 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:56.320 some developing nations that are making certain that their cell 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:58.400 phone towers are not on the power grid at all, 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:01.960 either because there's out of power credit in those remote 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:06.199 locations or it's just so unreliable that in order to 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:12.479 have a stable communication system power supply that a lot 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:14.440 of them are running on their own generators, and many 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:19.200 of them are using solar power as a primary means 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:23.119 for generating electricity for during the daylight hours. So that's 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:25.959 pretty interesting, and we could take a note from that, 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:30.040 like we could start building out infrastructure to be robust 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:33.840 in that same way and independent in that same way. Uh. 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.159 And you know, like I said, just because you have 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:39.600 access doesn't mean everybody else, you know does. It could 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:41.439 still end up being a big issue and you might 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:43.920 not be able to get in touch with anybody. So 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:46.880 that's power and communications, But you know, there are other 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:50.640 things that we rely upon that we take for granted, like, hey, 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:53.760 have you ever gone up to a faucet and turned 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:56.560 on the knob and nothing came out. I've done that 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:00.800 in my home before. Isn't that a terrifying experience? It's yeah, 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:03.520 it's It's especially bad when it's like your mouth is 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:07.399 full of toothpaste. Yes, that's not that's not good. Yeah. Um. 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:09.440 Running water is one of those things that we often 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:12.919 take for granted, and uh uh. If the paragrine system 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:16.320 is down, running water will follow. Maybe not immediately. You 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:19.440 might actually be able to have running water for a day, 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:21.959 maybe a little bit longer. If you happen to live 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:24.159 in a place that has a lot of water in 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.120 its pipes like New York City, actually could potentially hold 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:30.320 a couple of days worth of water in their pipes. Um, 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:32.800 just because that the water pressure that's built up and 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:36.760 the water supplies are enough to go for another couple 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:40.680 of days, assuming that everyone's not immediately thinking oh, humanities, 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:44.720 every container in the house, yeah, or which I mean, honestly, 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:47.920 if I thought if I thought that the apocalypse was happening, 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:50.600 the first thing I would do is fill up every 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:53.720 container in the house with water. Yeah, me too. Also, 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:56.119 I'd want to run the washing machine to clean on 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:59.360 my underwear because I'm sure that it was very recently soiled. 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:02.679 That's all scared I would be. I would soil not 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:04.840 just the under where I was wearing, but every pair 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:09.640 I own. Um. But no, you would you would think 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:13.800 that that would very quickly eliminate the supplied water. In 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:17.560 the United States, we mostly are creating our water pressure 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:21.879 through water tanks. The water tanks are elevated. Um. It's funny. 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:26.840 There's actually a very specific formula. Every every foot of 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:30.040 height provides point four three one pounds per square inch 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:32.359 of pressure. So if we want to convert that to 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:36.160 the metric system, for every thirty point four eight centimeters 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:41.359 you get two point nine seven two kilo pascals of pressure. Uh, 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:42.879 that means nothing to me. I have to do the 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:46.080 pownds of the pressure that the per square inch of pressure. 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:48.680 But a municipal water supplies run between fifty and a 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.399 p s i or three five to six nine kilo pascals, 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:56.679 and most water towers contain enough water to supply the 0:20:56.720 --> 0:21:02.320 surrounding community for a day, assuming normal use, not that 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:07.800 everybody is trying to. Yeah. So the problem is that 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:10.720 to refill those water tanks, you have to pump water 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:16.240 up to those and yeah, those pumps maybe running on electricity, 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:19.160 So if they're not running on electricity, they're running on fuel. 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:22.600 So either they're running on electricity and therefore you can't 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:26.280 use them anymore because the grid is offline. So once 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:28.800 the water's gone, it's gone, or they're running on fuel. 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.000 And then once your fuel runs out because you aren't 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:37.040 able to transport or refine more of it, or or 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:40.400 get your hands on more of it, the water runs out. 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:42.280 Either way, the water runs out. It's just a question 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:46.160 of time. So that's a huge issue. So it would 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:49.160 really make you wish that you had access to clean 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:51.560 well water, and you might depending on where you are, 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:54.720 Like we live in an urban environment. We don't have 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:57.240 access to clean well water. I think. I don't know. 0:21:57.320 --> 0:21:58.879 You don't have a well in your backyard, do you 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:02.159 If that I do have one, I don't know about it, 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:05.240 but I don't know. There's some weird stuff buried back there. Yeah, 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:07.080 it all depends on how often you do yard work, 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:09.680 you know, like, yeah, I don't know what's back underneath 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:14.399 that mass. Sometimes ghostly creatures come crawling out of my backyard. 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:19.160 So oldridge horrors are not necessarily an indication that there 0:22:19.200 --> 0:22:23.040 is a well in the nearby area. It's a common misconception. 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:26.960 Uh yeah, So unless you have access to clean water, 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:31.040 that's gonna be a huge, huge problem. And for much 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:33.239 of the population in the United States, that is in 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:36.960 fact a huge problem that you don't you know, you 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:39.919 don't necessarily live near a place where you can reliably 0:22:39.960 --> 0:22:45.040 get potable water. Uh. Even bigger problem in other parts 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:49.000 of the world, obviously, So that's another issue. Then we 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:52.920 have the cars and fuel. So your car, let's say 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:56.719 it's an electromagnetic pulse, some of your car systems might 0:22:56.720 --> 0:22:59.000 get fried. But in general, you know, we're talking about 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:03.480