A light switch away...

I have often thought to myself that all of this is much more fragile than people realize.  Humans like to assume that things will not change.  Considering what we are and how we got here, that supposition is silly at best.

We are change.  We are a monumental force that struck this planet.  Merely a few hundred thousand years ago, a biped was able to control fire.  Since then we have changed the entire landscape.  Our caves becoming more elaborate.  The fire burning different fuels.

I am the child of an age of abstraction.  My income generated by pressing buttons.  The buttons sending inputs that are translated dozens of times into a visual representation.  That visual representation again interpreted and leading to more button pressing.  I send portions of my income to others that then push more buttons telling valves and switches to open or close.  Eventually through all the layers of abstraction, I gain heat and light.

But, there are layers of abstraction, and those layers are susceptible to the variance of the physical world.  A storm knocks over a tree... A tree falls on a power line... The power line breaks or disconnects... Suddenly, everything changes.  The buttons are no longer connected.  The fuel no longer reaches my fire.  My cave is no longer a haven.

Now, the layers of abstraction are not truly gone.  There are methods for reconnecting layers.  Fire is still my birthright.  I can still will it into existence.  However, the ability to control it effectively has been lost.  I can use another fuel to either power the control mechanisms or provide another source of heat and light.  I can find other caves.  Caves where the fire is still well controlled.  All of the layers of abstraction are still in place, I am simply disconnected from them.

The truth becomes clear quickly.  If we take away the grid, my place in the world must change dramatically.  We would return to open hearths and candlelight.  We would return to telling stories by the fire.  We would return to schedules based around the sun.  It is a world I have visited countless times, but it is not a world I can live in.  It is not a world where I can provide food for myself and those I care for.  It is a world where I have few skills of worth.

I would adapt.  After all, I am human.  I would begin reconnecting the layers.  I would strive to bring us back... perhaps with some changes, but still to a world where I can press buttons.  Where those buttons create signals and those signals can travel anywhere.  I can live as my ancestors did.  However, the truth is I won't.