Blackout Baby, Blackout!
'With the power lines down and the city in distress, have we forgotten how to function without them, no less?'
Two weeks ago we were discussing historical origins of electricity with the AC DC battle between Tesla and Edison. We also expanded on the notion of the 'ether' and how we've arrived at a point in our progress (once again this taboo word appears) that we may soon be doing away with wires as a medium for carrying electrical charges. Amazing! Just imagine your phone charging in your pocket, your laptop never needing to be plugged in, actually achieving the minimalist aesthetic in an entertainment space.
We've come a long way my friends. <Blackout> It all stops. The lights are out, the systems are down.
Everything we think we've achieved through our research in electricity is diminished when the electrical current ceases to flow. Think about it, the university had to close this afternoon; the reliance on electrical systems rendered classrooms useless -classrooms situated in windowless spaces were designed with the electric light in mind- communications were gone. We were left wondering what we were going to do about school work and tutorials! The electric current, as I've past commented, may be a life essence, a medium, for our mobility and vital functions, but it is our medium for connecting outwardly to the rest of the world. Even our memories are remotely stored, with those intricate networks of wires feeding the information back to us in some form.
Why would I even bother writing about this? We all know how much we rely on electronics, we all know what happens when the power goes out, there's nothing new to say. We mediate ourselves outwardly in many ways through electric current and we're well aware of it. The amazing thing is what happens to people as social beings when the abundance of electricity disappears. Today I was in DAWB and in lieu of the outage, I had lively conversations with a number of professors and friends in the hallway. News of the outage's severity and school closure was communicated by word of mouth by strangers. This information was repeated, confirmed, updated so everyone could know. As I walked home, the traffic, devoid of working lights, needed to communicate to other drivers about when to proceed through an intersection. They needed to do the communicating with other drivers and pedestrians, for the most part, they needed to work together.
Communicating it has been suggested, is a means for us to overcome our condemnation to death. In all the 'progress' we've made, new forms of mediating ourselves through electricity and it's devices become a new way to connect with others, and it's a good thing really, until the power goes out! Perhaps what is more amazing than the sudden awareness of ourselves literally being cut off from our remote selves, is that we revert back to the social beings we are calibrated to be. I suppose this primeval method communicating is never entirely replaced through technologies, we're always talking to others in person. I think we're just not well aware of how attuned we are at achieving social tasks without delegating them to a device.
So as the DC backups drained out their charge this afternoon, strangely, a certain peace seemed to overcome everyone I spoke with, despite being crippled by the power outage. It was a burdening situation for many, but for at least one moment, maybe a burden was in fact lifted? Let's hear your thoughts!

