Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Solar storms
According to the public prints, cosmic disruption is afoot, if we can believe the story,and I think we can. The Roomba just ran amok in the livingroom, making a silly humming sound and then setting forth on a quest of its own, determined only by the desires of a Roomba's heart. I pulled plug and smacked the off button to silence it. Then the TV started talking in a quavery voice. Is the cosmos making war on me? Who can know? It often feels like it. This could be interesting.
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2 comments:
Sounds like an episode of the "Twilight Zone" at your house, Loon.
I would say that of course solar flares could affect electronics; why would we think we are immune from mother nature's stirrings? With more electronic geegaws than ever before, who knows what more may happen? We're in uncharted territory as a society here. We get lab gremlins every now and then, believe me, with instruments going awry every now and then with no good explanation. Power surges, position of the moon, static electricity, whatever. The sun is just a huge ball of helium and energy, and has the capacity to incinerate us in milliseconds if its storms get out of hand.
Sorry, I've been watching some fabulous programming on the Science channel about "Prophets of Science Fiction". Last night was Jules Verne and Robert Heinlein. They've also had spots on Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, etc. Always puts my imagination into overdrive.
But, given the delicate nature of robotics, microchips, and so forth, I would say it's not only possible, but probable, that solar flares have the capacity to wreak havoc on our tightly controlled little world.
I've never trusted Roombas. You might want to keep an eye on that little robot. Have you ever read "I, Robot" by Asimov?
You never know....
I've read very little sci-fi. I acknowledge that I'm probably missing something with such writers as Asimov and Dick. I did love Neuromancer and just finished a book of essays by Gibson.
I suspect we have a black swan looming out there in the area of electronic communication. About one day of the net being inoperative would bring everything to a halt.
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