What if all electronic devices around the world suddenly stop functioning at the same time?

[Forte]

I've been wondering about this for quite some time and can't stop speculating. But it's just my speculation. I need an expert's answer about this. Though maybe most people here are more like experts on sharing moe pictures, bragging their gaming achievements and experiences, stalking the other members' accounts, talking about this and that which dosn't matter at all; I hope that there's actually someone here who can illuminate me on this matter.

[Chronopolis]

https://www.quora.com/If-all-technology-stopped-working-what-would-society-look-like-300-years-from-that-point

Also http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/33826/what-would-happen-if-electricity-stopped-working

Ultimately things would go on...but things would be really ugly from the suddenness and profoundness of the change. Any and all of the complex infrastructures in the world are just going to fall apart without power.

[Justin579]

It would be chaos. tons of crime since there would be no police or cars or anything. rape murder stealing etc.

 

Only good thing that would come out of it is the population would decline and we need that badly.

[littleshogun]

Maybe I'll try to elaborate it later, but for short answer it would be chaos in all over the world and suddenly all human need to adapt in short time, while they already depended on electronic device or electricity. Although for some tribe that didn't use any electricity, I think that's hardly a problem for them though.

[Ariurotl]

Things would get very boring and cliched for a couple of years, and then thankfully it all would end.

[Clephas]

Why do you think Texans like guns so much?

[Darklord Rooke]

This sort of speculation has been pretty common for decades, due to the threat of nuclear warfare and the established belief that nuclear weapons detonated in the atmosphere will emit EMPs that will wipe out all electronics. Just google it if you want people's theories on what would happen.

[Mugi]

No more porn, no more visual novels, no more anime, probably no more manga, no more dank memes, no more fuwa. 

 

Basically, the world would end. 

[Snaiki]

I think the first thing that would happen would be like, oh, lights are gone. Then goverment would have people on cars, going through the streets, saying that something is wrong with electricity, asking the neighborhood to light torches or something like that and closing their doors. If they do not find a way to solve it for a long time, people would start to get extreme. Crime would increase. The goverment would dispatch the army. The groups of people would become reclusive since they have to keep things secure (food, health, etc.). All of this while the 1st world countries try to find new ways of comunicating with their inhabitants.

Honestly you would stop caring that there is no electricity, and start caring about your security and your family's.

[Bolverk]

1 hour ago, Mugi said:

No more porn, no more visual novels, no more anime, probably no more manga, no more dank memes, no more fuwa. 

 

Basically, the world would end. 

Pretty much might as well kill myself then.

Or develop a new sense for aesthetics and start collecting physical porn magazines. Develop a theater with people wearing anime cosplay. Draw my own manga. And create a underground weeb community where to show off our weebness and memes.

[TexasDice]

We trading card and tabletop nerds will laugh at all the other losers. 

[Narcosis]

There are few potential scenarios:

1. Chaos. Lack of communication between world powers, which usually comes to misunderstandings (the old good question - were they the ones, who did it?) might lead to another massive conflict on a global scale. This might (or might not) end the world as we know it. Depending on the scale and weapons used, remains of humanity would then live on the ruins of our old civilization, devoid of any current technological advancements; much or less, dung ages revisited.

2. Fall back to last known, working state of humanity. As above, it would preety much mean complete reversal of all our known technology to a state, where electronics didn't exist yet. Which means pre-mid industrial era. Cue steampunk/dieselpunk crossovers, power of steam, calculation machines and first combustion engines, provided we'll manage to fix/reinvent the electricity.

3. Adaptation. It's the most possible scenario and I seriously doubt 'all' of the electronics would ever die out. Preety much a world, where we  take what's left and try to rebuild, using any possible means around. I'm sure the world would still look quite different, since disappearance of everything virtual to a large extent (money, information stored digitally, etc.) would cause quite a turmoil around the world.

If you're that interested to see any of those scenarios in action, go read/watch Shinsekai Yori.

Spoiler

It's literally a world, rebuilt after a similiar disaster.

 

[Godskrieg]

I jump off a roof. That's what.

[Valmore]

I sleep like a baby while the world burns. No, wait, that's me setting the world ablaze. My bad.

#WorldwideBadEnd

[Kawasumi]

yup, only one option.

Spoiler

 

[Funyarinpa]

0-3 hours: Thousands of deaths as a result of malfunctioning planes, cars, medical equipment, hazardous tools; nuclear reactor meltdowns irreversibly corrupt numerous cities

3 hours-1 day: Major intricate frameworks such as power grids, banking systems, Internet collapse. A primitive sort of communication between world governments is established. Fires from factories etc. spread, killing more. 

1 week: Water and food gains great value. Warehouses start to get raided in search for food.

1 month: Anarchy reigns in a post-apocalyptic world.

 

[Valmore]

5 minutes ago, Funyarinpa said:

0-3 hours: Thousands of deaths as a result of malfunctioning planes, cars, medical equipment, hazardous tools; nuclear reactor meltdowns irreversibly corrupt numerous cities

3 hours-1 day: Major intricate frameworks such as power grids, banking systems, Internet collapse. A primitive sort of communication between world governments is established. Fires from factories etc. spread, killing more. 

1 week: Water and food gains great value. Warehouses start to get raided in search for food.

1 month: Anarchy reigns in a post-apocalyptic world.

 

Step 3: Profit.

[Funyarinpa]

Just now, Valmore said:

Step 3: Prophet.

FTFY, religious fanaticism will be on the rise.

[Okarin]

All cars wouldn't fail, only the modern crap equipped with electronics to the brim. I picture the police making patrols in old Ford models.

The factories would, and that would be disaster.

Also, how would you know everything failed worldwide? You'd have no communications outside your home town (which is worrying enough). There would be seemingly instant martial law.

But fret not, because such a thing is impossible. Only possible if Sony acquires monopoly over electronics and delivers faulty equipment like the Playstation 4 

Edit: Also radioactive contamination isn't "irreversible". The damn isotopes last for A LOT of time, but the land is recoverable in several hundreds of years (judging by the information I have on Chernobyl affair). Another matter is that we could wait for that long. About the isotopes, funny thing is there's a balance: the most harmful ones are the most short-lived ones, by the very nature of radioactive material: the more energetic they are, the more unstable they are.

[Valmore]

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[atorq]

I would read a book and maybe build a table. A really nice table, the nicest ever in fact.

[tymmur]

I thought a bit about this question of what would happen if the flow of electrons would stop. First we assume bio-generated electricity would continue to work or we would all be brain dead. First food will go bad because it becomes too hot. It will not be replenished because farming and food factories would stop as well. Infrastructure will collapse and ensure that the little food left in the countryside would stay there. Cities would starve to death. Post apocalyptic cannibalism and whatever.

 

Life support would stop. This is temperature regulation (heating/cooling). In an era where many buildings do not have a fireplace, a winter could be deadly. Water supply would stop.

 

Terraforming facilities would stop working. This would primarily be dams. They would no longer be able to control the water level and might build up enough water to collapse. Particularly the Netherlands, but also quite a number of other places will be flooded when drain pumps stop permanently.

 

All nuclear facilities would be without cooling and all reactors would suffer meltdowns. Chemical industries and similar could also become unstable and leak "interesting" stuff if not downright explode. Over time tanks of all sorts of toxic stuff would start leaking.

 

Many of those events will not take place until after the majority of people have died of thirst and "wrong" temperature. People will usually not last even one week without access to water.

 

 

If we assume it's just the power grid, which dies, then it will restart. Some powerplants can actually be handcranked to start a small generator, which starts a bigger generator, which starts a bigger... eventually putting the plant back on the grid even without the aid of external power or batteries. Usage of batteries will speed up the process though. Most powerplants can't start themselves and they rely on a system, which pretty much would be described as cars running without batteries and they are jumpstarted from running ones. 5 MW is kind of hard to get from batteries. Recovery from a completely dead grid where all powerplants went offline takes around 8 hours. It might take longer before everybody have restored power. Most years pass without this happening anywhere in the world, but it does happen if somebody is unluckly and all powergrids have emergency plans for such an event. The risk for losing power is greater from a storm, in which case you might also have to wait longer for the power to return, sometimes days.

 

Many people might be surprised to know that wind energy or solar power will not help in case of a blackout. If they do not get 50/60 Hz from a central powerplant, they can't figure out which frequency to produce and they just dies. The standard setup with solar panels on the roof will not feed the house with electricity if you lose the connection to the grid. Like it or not, the power supply is ruled by central powerplants.

[Forte]

On 2016/6/7 at 0:24 AM, Valmore said:

.... . / -. . ...- . .-. / ... .- .. -.. / - .... .- - / . .-.. . -.-. - .-. .. -.-. .. - -.-- / .-- --- ..- .-.. -.. / --. --- / --- ..- - / .--- ..- ... - / - .... .- - / -.. . ...- .. -.-. . ... / .-- --- ..- .-.. -.. / ..-. ..- -. -.-. - .. --- -. / ... --- / .-- . / -... .-. . .- -.- / --- ..- - / -.-- . / --- .-.. -.. . / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . / -.. . ...- .. -.-. . ... / .- -. -.. / - .- .--. / - .- .--. / - .- .--. / .- .-- .- -.--

Is it a morse code or what?

On 2016/6/7 at 1:40 AM, atorq said:

I would read a book and maybe build a table. A really nice table, the nicest ever in fact.

Yeah, just enjoy your time leisurely while all your neighbors freak out.

 

From some comments I've read above, seems like it would be like chaos and apocalypse and something similar. But would it be that bad, really? Maybe in some short span of time after the happening there would be uproars everywhere but everything will settle down eventually, not long after. I mean, human since Adam's age has been survived some millennia without using electricity.

[Andrew]

Farming will become very lucrative,  Farms will be hot assets.
A lot of white collar jobs will disappear.
Healthier people, Most jobs would be physically demanding.
People will meet often, No Facebook/twitter.
http://www.iec.edu.in
andrew