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“Lights Out” by Ted Koppel

TARDAWG

TARDAWG

Steve Lepore
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Anyone here on the boards read this book? Sounds a lot like the T.V. program Revolutuion.

If you want to pick up on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Lights-Out-Cyberattack-Unprepared-Surviving/dp/055341996X

Was with a buddy last night who read it and is freaked out to the point of starting an escape plan or survival plan. If the three power grids in the United states were compromised, how long do you feel it would be shut down for and to what extent do you feel like the damage would be on the American society?
 
I actually read a book called "One Second After" http://www.onesecondafter.com/ several years ago that is about the same subject. My wife and several other friends read it after I mentioned it in conversations. I am no prepper by any means but we have taken a few steps such as storing water, pet food, and some MRE's just in case.

I just saw the Koppel interview on CBS Sunday morning and think I may take a few more readiness steps since Koppel is convinced the bad guys are already in the internet system and could shut the power off at any time. I know a lot of this sounds crazy but I do believe if it were to happen, counting on government would be a big mistake.
 
This is the dumbest thing ever. What exactly would prevent us from turning the power back on?

Keep in mind this infrastructure ran analog for probably the better part of a century. Some of it probably still does.
 
"shutting off" or "disrupting the grid" are waaaaaaaaaaaay different than an EMP (like in One Second After)

and EMP would fry the grid and every electrical device
 
ImTheCaptain said:
"shutting off" or "disrupting the grid" are waaaaaaaaaaaay different than an EMP (like in One Second After)

and EMP would fry the grid and every electrical device
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Thats what I meant, an EMP. Koppel's book is just another warning of what things would be like w/o electricity.
 
A big enough solar flare would be really, really bad for our electrical infrastructure.

Read about the Carrington Event of 1859. Scary.
 
quick question: how does a Dyson Sphere handle a solar flare? thanks in advance
 
Except that creating an 'EMP' which isn't really a viable thing yet anyway, on the scale that could knock out the power to even one city, much less a region or the whole country, doesn't exist and isnt close to existing. You would basically have to create a nuclear level explosion in the air above a major city.

Hackers could fuck up a power grid for a hot second, but no one is EMPing an American city.

Have fun with Koppel's old balls and your space ice cream in the basement.
 
My mom can get a little crazy about the EMP thing so I read One Second After on her recommendation. Not very well written but a fun read.
 
EMP's aren't really a worry. Solar flares most definitely are. We just barely missed a disaster back in 2012 and NASA puts the chances of a similar flare actually hitting earth at greater than 10% over the next 10 years or so.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/23jul_superstorm/
In February 2014, physicist Pete Riley of Predictive Science Inc. published a paper in Space Weather entitled "On the probability of occurrence of extreme space weather events." In it, he analyzed records of solar storms going back 50+ years. By extrapolating the frequency of ordinary storms to the extreme, he calculated the odds that a Carrington-class storm would hit Earth in the next ten years.

The answer: 12%.

"Initially, I was quite surprised that the odds were so high, but the statistics appear to be correct," says Riley. "It is a sobering figure."
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/04/us-solar-superstorm-idUSBRE8721K820120804
A monster blast of geomagnetic particles from the sun could destroy 300 or more of the 2,100 high-voltage transformers that are the backbone of the U.S. electric grid, according to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Even a few hundred destroyed transformers could disable the entire interconnected system.
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There were multiple stories in the news yesterday about the White House finally getting around to putting together a plan to improve the power grid and come up with emergency plans for a large scale loss of power, communications, transportation, etc. A direct hit from a storm like the one in 2012 has the potential to take the grid down for years in some areas, and still for months in major cities. Repairing/replacing massive transformers and sub stations and repairing fried power lines isn't work that just happens in a few days. With the power grid goes the ability to move fuel, food, etc.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/10/28/enhancing-national-preparedness-space-weather-events
At the event, OSTP Director John Holdren is announcing the release of the National Space Weather Strategy and the National Space Weather Action Plan. These two documents were developed by an interagency group of experts, with input from stakeholders outside the Federal government, to clearly articulate how the Federal government will work to enhance national space-weather preparedness by coordinating, integrating, and expanding existing policy efforts; engaging a broad range of sectors; and collaborating with international counterparts. The Strategy identifies goals and establishes the guiding principles that will guide these efforts in both the near and long term, while the Action Plan identifies specific activities, outcomes, and timelines that the Federal government will pursue accordingly. The Action Plan broadly aligns with investments proposed in the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2016 and will be reevaluated and updated within 3 years of the date of publication or as needed.
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ImTheCaptain said:
quick question: how does a Dyson Sphere handle a solar flare? thanks in advance
Click to expand...

More energy for everyone! If you can build a Dyson Sphere, you can keep it from being harmed by a big flare and the amount of energy released by these things is incomprehensible so it would be a positive for whomever is running the thing.
 
Obviously, a group like ISIS is unpredictable, but with respect to the risk of a cyberattack on US infrastructure by nation-states like Russia or China, I suspect there is an element of mutually assured destruction at play, because if they are in our systems, as someone whose expertise on such matters is limited mostly to watching Mr. Robot, I'm fairly confident we are in theirs as well and could easily return the favor. See, e.g., North Korea's internet going down after the attack on Sony.
 
Why is the sun trying to kill us? First skin cancer, now this.
 
The EMP was only like a threat to Jack Bauer for a 2 episode arc, tops. Not nearly the national security threat of countless other things.
 
palmab03 said:
The EMP was only like a threat to Jack Bauer for a 2 episode arc, tops. Not nearly the national security threat of countless other things.
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seriously. and all it took was initiating a fire fight with the security forces of that company for CTU to find his location on their satellites.
 
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