2 hours ago, Fielder said:

If they do want us to interact, they would be landing near 10 Downing for all to see

 

If the Nimitz tic tac incident is anything to go by, and if it is related to alien visitation, it would appear to be more like indifference.

The tic tacs were observed initially, in groups, at altitude, traveling rather slowly in a direction out to sea. They only seemed to pay attention to the carrier group and Fravors F18, when attempts were made to intercept. Otherwise they would just carry on doing their thing.

There have been some encounters reported, for example the Melbourne school incident, where they seem to be deliberately exposing themselves. Some would say an attempt to gradually get us used to the idea that they exist.

Would make more sense than landing on the Whitehouse lawn as such an act would throw a considerable number of people into panick mode.

 

2 hours ago, Fielder said:

More safeguards and toning down technical advances to proceed more carefully

 

That's not going to happen. Technological progress is incredibly rapid, don't think it can be moderated the way you say. Negatives are involved with tech of course but also many positives. With so many positive benefits, like medical tech that saves lives, it will continue at a rapid pace.

Whether we humans survive this particular great filter, or are knocked back into a medieval stage, or worse become extinct, remains to be seen.

But then how many more great filters are ahead of us? 

On 7/10/2022 at 8:32 AM, Luke said:

You had the same problem before then, with transmission lines from generating stations to high usage areas. Knock out enough of the right ones (the 1998 Quebec ice storm springs to mind, since it came quite close to doing so) and you end up with a partial grid collapse.

This is not a new problem, nor is it related to computers.

The August 2003 northeast US blackout (which I remember well) was directly caused by a malfunctioning computer system at First Energy in Ohio. Their “state estimator” monitored the condition and real-time load on the grid. It had locked up due to a race condition in the software. The problem was that it was not obvious to operators that the software had locked up. It appeared to be functional, but was not providing status updates.

It was a hot day, and several key high voltage transmission lines in the First Energy grid had tripped off due to overloads. Because of the frozen state esitimator, grid operators were unaware that this had happened, so they took no corrective action to shift generation resources to make up for the lost capacity. More and more power began flowing into Ohio from the New York and and Ontario grids, and generators in those areas began tripping off due to excessive current. It produced a cascading series of failures, and the whole northeast grid collapsed in 30 seconds.

The grids in New York, New Jersey, the entire Canadian province of Ontario, and parts of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts all disconnected from each other automatically, and most generation resources within each (now isolated) grid were lost due to automatic protection systems that took generators offline as current demand increased and the system 60 Hz synchronized frequency became unstable. 

It was later determined that if First Energy had not lost their computer system, and had re-routed power flow on one key transmission line in the Akron, OH area in time, the grid collapse would not have happened.

After the blackout, many parts of the northeast did not have power restored for almost 48 hours.

 

 

Technology also makes us vulnerable when its in the wrong hands like when the power company claims you used a lot more power than you know you did.  I've seen stories of this happening to others and it happened to me.  Its like with Enron where they deliberately shorted supply and ended up killing people.

Edited July 12, 20223 yr by sightseer

When it comes to power supply costs and outages for the home owner in America, it all depends on where you live.

If electricity is made by burning coal, then the price will be enormous. Also if  you live in an area where forest fires destroy powerlines and homeowners sue the power companies for starting the fire. 

But if you live downstream from a hydro electric dam, which we do, they almost give you electricity free. Last month we had over 10 days over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The other days wee in the 90's.  Our monthly bill was $145. In the winter it can get down to about $35. Gas (for heating) this month was under $30 (we never had to heat the house, it was already too hot. Only gas appliance was the water heater). 

Not too far away, about 300 miles, energy bills can be five times this high. Electricity might cost $700 instead of $145 during a very hot month. They aren't using hyrdo generated electricity. Damming rivers is still the cheapest and best energy source with todays technology. You have to live in a valley near a mountain with rivers flowing your way. And a dam in between. 

I believe our electricity come from a combination of natural gas, solar farms, and wind farms.  Last month we had more than 20 days over 100 degrees and 2 window air conditions going from about 10:00AM to midnight.  My electric bill was 150.00.

We heat the house, water and cook with gas.  In the winter our gas heaters are on most of the day.  I'm on budget billing so I pay about 95.00 a month for gas.  Every it adjusts up or down a bit to make for losses or overages over the previous year.

Noel

12 hours ago, JRBarrett said:

The August 2003 northeast US blackout (which I remember well) was directly caused by a malfunctioning computer system at First Energy in Ohio. Their “state estimator” monitored the condition and real-time load on the grid. It had locked up due to a race condition in the software. The problem was that it was not obvious to operators that the software had locked up. It appeared to be functional, but was not providing status updates.

The original cause was due to First Energy cutting back on maintenance and was not trimming the trees around the power lines, It was a hot day which causes the lines to expand in the heat which meant they 'Drooped' with gravity causing spikes on the lines in numerous areas on the grid, then yes the technicians made mistakes trying to figure out what was happening and failed to restart the monitoring software, and this became a domino effect from there taking out pretty much all of the North East USA and Canada. This does compare to aviation accidents were a simple cause (a tree branch) creates a domino effect leading to a major disaster, also the reason I still find this event so fascinating.

Saddest thing of that event was a guy named Lewis Wheelan, he was a former employee of a Power Company and survived a 7,200 volt electrocution which caused the loss of both his legs and his right arm, and due to his burns required a ventilator. Following the accident he received a settlement and with that money moved to a Condominium Tower in Toronto, and all the equipment required to allow him a quality of life. When the blackout happened his ventilator stopped, the elevators were not working in his building and he couldn't get out of his apartment and his family was unable to reach him in time, unfortunately he died alone in his apartment. Very sad story as his first accident with a power company almost killed him, only for another power company to cause him to lose his life, and only 2 years from the first accident. He was only 22 years old when he died. I always think about this story looking back on the events of those days, it is a good reminder of what Noel has been saying about reliance on the grid, unfortunately for Mr Wheelan his life depended on it.

Edited July 13, 20223 yr by Matthew Kane