[mkirkpatrick]

Back in the 1950s,there was a film called,The day the earth stood still,a scfi
film,that i thought was excellent,in one part of the film,the alien man,to demonstrate his power,stopped all electrical occurances on the planet,
everything that used electricity stopped wordwide.The alien man said that his planet was concerned about our atomic discoveries and where they
may lead,I have recently thought about the utter dependance we have on
electricity,I sit here now typing this thread starter on the toequest forum,but what good would my computer be to me without power-none whatsoever.
The planet hums with the sound of electricity,high tension cables glow with
an errie blue light on frosty mornings!Mobile phones,what usewould that be
without power,a paperweight prehaps?So if some super intelligence could
actually do this,how would youlet others know from afar off?Use smoke signals prehaps???
kind regards michael.

[harmonygirl]

interesting thought Michael, last weekend there was a gathering of ham radio operators (which I think would still work, wouldn't they?)

[Guille]

Michael,

It wouldn't be normal that someone can stop all electrical energy in Earth, it would have to be with sme gigantic magnets or something. Anyway, we could communicate with morse code: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code and we could build up our energy on light, that is, with wires that carry photons (fibre optics is an example of this growing technology) instead of electrons. We would change the name from electricity to photicitry, from electronics to phototronics, from electric to photonic...

[mkirkpatrick]

No it would not be normal,amigo,butthiswas an ab-normal situation,whereby
an alien intelligence caused all electic and electromagntic happenings to
cease.Morse code would not work either.we would be literally cut off from the rest of the world,and if this were to continue,we would have to throw
our computers,and mobile phones in the dustbin,as theywould be totally useless withoutpower.
kind regards michael.

[harmonygirl]

or morse code or semaphore (or even, heaven forbid, get to know our neighbors!)

[mkirkpatrick]

Semaphore would be alright Harmony,but morse code would not work,there is no electrical activity at all,remember!
And morse code relies on electrical signals to transmit its message!
Getting to know the neighbours,well that another thing?

kind regards michael.

[harmonygirl]

You're right, I stand corrected. Maybe it would be a good thing for the human species, getting to know your neighbors, try to live as a community instead of empahsis on individual, get back in touch with the land...hmmm....i can dream...