The Day Technology Went Away

TL;DR

A powerful solar event could disable modern technology for the long term, including bringing down the power grid. The 1859 Carrington Event made telegraph stations spark, caused a fire, and let operators exchange messages with equipment turned off, while the event detected in 774 or 775 AD may have been over a hundred times more powerful. Read on to see why Miyake events remain unpredictable and difficult to explain.

Transcript

In september of 1859 a solar geomagnetic storm occured known as the Carrington Event that wreaked absolute havoc on the technology available in those days. Specifically, telegraph stations that reported sparking and even a fire due to geomagnetically induced current. This led to a curious effect, even when telegraph operators turned their equipment... Read More

Key Insights

• ❓ The Carrington Event in 1859 and the Miyake events were both solar events that caused significant disruptions to technology.
• ❓ The Miyake events were much more powerful than the Carrington Event and are still not fully understood.
• 🥺 Solar flares can have long-lasting effects on technology, potentially leading to the collapse of civilization.
• ✊ The unpredictability and power of solar flares pose a significant risk to our modern technological society.
• 💩 The impact of a solar flare hitting us today could be devastating, considering our heavy reliance on technology.
• 🛟 Our technological paradigm has drastically changed our lives and made us dependent on modern infrastructure.
• 🥺 A sudden loss of our technological infrastructure, such as through a solar flare, could lead to a collapse in civilization.

Questions & Answers

Q: What would happen if a powerful solar event hit Earth today?

A coronal mass ejection pointed directly at Earth could wreak havoc on modern technology and have long-lasting effects. The transcript specifically warns that the power grid could go down for the long term, with potentially catastrophic consequences for a technology-dependent civilization.

Q: What was the Carrington Event and how did it affect technology?

The Carrington Event was a solar geomagnetic storm in September 1859. Geomagnetically induced current made telegraph stations spark and caused at least one fire, while some operators could still send and receive messages after turning their equipment off.

Q: What caused the Carrington Event?

The event was most likely caused by a coronal mass ejection from the sun. An observed solar flare may have been directly related to it, and the storm also produced massive, widespread auroras.

Q: What was the Miyake or Charlemagne event?

The event is identified by a carbon-14 spike in tree rings from 774 or 775 AD that reached 20 times the normal background. Beryllium isotopes in ice cores appear at the same time, suggesting a rapid, global event.

Q: How much stronger was the Miyake event than the Carrington Event?

The transcript says the Miyake event was over a hundred times more powerful than the Carrington Event. Evidence also points to another event two hundred years later and at least four other cases of very high-energy radiation hitting Earth.

Q: Can Miyake events be predicted from the sun’s cycle?

Not reliably. Although sunspots and flares reach a maximum every 11 years, Miyake events appear to occur regardless of the sun’s position in that cycle and vary from very short events to episodes lasting over a year or building across a decade.

Q: How often do Miyake events occur?

The events loosely average about one every thousand years, according to the transcript. That average does not make them regular or predictable, and the speaker says they can appear unexpectedly.

Q: Are Miyake events definitely caused by solar flares?

No definitive cause is established, though the leading explanation is that the sun occasionally produces sustained, multiple flares as a collective superflare. Other proposed causes include cosmic rays, gamma-ray bursts, nearby supernovae, passing neutron stars, or an unknown process of isotope generation on Earth, but the transcript says none of these explanations fits very well.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• In 1859, the Carrington Event caused havoc on telegraph systems, sparking fires and allowing communication even when the equipment was turned off.

• The Miyake events, which occurred in the past, were over a hundred times more powerful than the Carrington Event and are not fully understood.

• If a solar flare similar to these events were to occur today, it could have long-lasting effects on our technology and potentially lead to the collapse of our civilization.