Students of technological history will know well of the 1859 Carrington Event, the most powerful solar incident in recorded history:
The Carrington Event was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, peaking from 1 to 2 September 1859 during solar cycle 10. It created strong auroral displays that were reported globally and caused sparking and even fires in multiple telegraph stations. The geomagnetic storm was most likely the result of a coronal mass ejection from the Sun colliding with Earth's magnetosphere.
The storm didn't just cause "fires in multiple telegraph stations." It threw "systems all over Europe and North America" into darkness, rendering communication over the nascent telegraph system in many cases impossible.
The solar current was so mindblowingly powerful, actually, that some telegraph operators could continue using their equipment even with the power shut off, as happened in New England.
This is an actual telegraph conversation that happened:
Boston operator (to Portland operator): "Please cut off your battery [power source] entirely for fifteen minutes."
Portland operator: "Will do so. It is now disconnected."
Boston: "Mine is disconnected, and we are working with the auroral current. How do you receive my writing?"
Portland: "Better than with our batteries on. – Current comes and goes gradually."
Boston: "My current is very strong at times, and we can work better without the batteries, as the aurora seems to neutralize and augment our batteries alternately, making current too strong at times for our relay magnets. Suppose we work without batteries while we are affected by this trouble."
Portland: "Very well. Shall I go ahead with business?"
Boston: "Yes. Go ahead."
That's amazing stuff.
Needless to say, if the same thing happened today, we would be beyond such amusing trivialities. A global or even regional power failure would spell disaster, chaos, and death for billions of people.
(Just a reminder that the sun is a huge fireball of insane power)
So we should consider ourselves lucky that the sun was looking the other way this time:
A massive eruption of solar material, known as a coronal mass ejection or CME, was detected escaping from the Sun at 11:36 p.m. EDT on March 12, 2023. The CME erupted from the side of the Sun opposite Earth.
Scratch that: We should consider ourselves very, extremely lucky:
What happened on March 12 was similar to the 1859 outburst – only worse. Early estimates suggest that this explosion was ten to a hundred times more powerful than the one of 1859. Such events – if not quite so extreme -- are not uncommon.
All active electronics would be fried by such an electromagnetic pulse.
All.
The electrical and electronic networks (e.g., the Net) that form the framework of Third Millennial civilization would have been annihilated. Once they were destroyed, all power would vanish. Industry would grind to a halt. Massive amounts of data, including almost all financial data, would simply disappear. All methods of communication beyond voice range would no longer exist.
The military has hardened systems that could survive such a flare, but no government could maintain order with that type of cataclysmic breakdown.
The consequences beggar the imagination. A new Dark Age would have been the best option to expect.
Me after reading that:
