Blackout!

On Wednesday evening I was sitting on my couch reading a book. This is just about the least technological thing I could think of me really doing. Then the electricity went out. It was rainy and so there was not much light (let alone it gets dark early now). There I was in the dark... unable to even read a book.

It was one of those moments that makes you take a step back and consider the reliance we have on technology. After the lights went off, I spent the next 45 minutes lying down listening to the rain simply because there was nothing else I could do. This was a pleasant time as rain is nice to listen to, but I could not imagine this being the standard on a nightly basis. What did people do before electricity?

I also began to wonder what everyone else thinks about when the electricity goes out. I have had the opportunity to study electrodynamics from an engineering and physics stand point and have a conception of how all the technology that runs my everyday life works. I could not imagine not having any idea how everything I use works. Is it a complete mystery when things don't work right or if the electricity goes out? What does one do without an understanding? It must be that you throw your hands up and simply view it as an unfortunate twist in fate and leave it to an unknown benevolent force to fix it. What a strange sentiment.