I have been joking around the last few years that what the Mayans had predicted was a solar flare that happens once every 10,000 years or so. It seems to be not as funny lately now that satellites are going to be falling from the sky. The sun has become ever more active at the height of this 6 year cycle that is at the height of another 100 year cycle. Please note our interpretation of the Mayan date has a leeway of around 60 days so there is no need to hide under your bed this Christmas.
I do however find it entertaining how naive people can be about our recent way of life and its perpetuation. We stopped playing in the mud around ten thousand years ago (according to popular belief) and have only as of late discovered the wonders of modern technology. In all you are looking at less than 1% of our over all existence being "advanced" and we tend to think that we are so far from what we have been in past. I assure you that is not the case and a giant solar flare might just be the worst type of reality check possible.
At our current state we have giant population centers dependant on electricity for survival via the refrigeration of food. A study was once done to see how far people would regress after a few days without food. After 3-4 the average do good-er was stealing and around 11-12 were willing to kill another individual in order to survive. Not that I am shaming the results, the brain will make any changes or justifications necessary to keep the organism alive.
I consider hurricane Ike the short preview of what life without the grid would be like and after around a week you could feel the uncertainty in the air. People started to consider the options they had with the food in the freezers melting and the last bit of charge on their phones dying. Not saying I enjoyed the whole experiance myself but it was nice to see the stark contrast from on to off and how fragile our way of life really is.
My advice? None really, was never a big fan of the Y2K type situations and have decided not to be in the field of making predictions. I am however always up for the what if's of the world and this outcome seems more and more likely as of late due to the recent events. So that being said, "if" this does go down as predicted by the Mayans, here are a few tips. One being to avoid those giant cannibalistic population centers, if you happen to be stuck just don't be the only one on the block with a light on at night. Second would be to plant corn or any type of seed you could find, seems the timing would provide us enough time to get by til that first harvest. Chances are our society would just collapse in this event given that its on the fringes of anarchy already and we have long since left any resemblance of community. I wont count out us all coming together to get things back up and running but the every man for themselves situation just seems more likely.
Bottom line is to not let the ego convince you things will always be the same as they are now, history provides us with a much different story if you pay attention with an open mind. Our existence means as a species we can survive these type of events but your own survival is up to you. Please note that the recent way of life is only a fraction and no where near a constant, you have been warned. Muhuahahuaha!
p.s. it would take around only 100 million dolars to boost our grid to handle this...
