What if everything just stopped working?

I love watching the Discovery Channel. And one show I was watching yesterday, Future Weapons, really tied into this week's blog.

When a nuclear weapon detonates, it emits something called an EMP - an electromagnetic pulse. For those who have seen Ocean's Eleven, it's the same kind of thing Basher (Don Cheadle) uses to knock out the power during the fight in Vegas.

But in the real world, an EMP, which at its strongest point lasts only a second, can ripple through the Earth's magnetic field and cripple any kind of electrical device connected to electrical wires in an instant.

What would you do-- what would the world do-- if everything just stopped working? Every computer, every television, stereo, blowdryer, lightbulb, microwave, stove, fridge, washing machine, dishwasher, phone, and the list goes on and on.

I remember the August blackout of 2003. I was in the shower at the time so when I went to my room afterwards I was just slightly annoyed when my light didn't turn on. But then my radio didn't work. And the TV didn't turn on. I tried calling someone but my cell wasn't working. I was disconnected.

With an EMP, a higher altitude when detonated means a more widespread impact. And these days, there's much speculation that a terrorist group or WWIII will be the cause of such an attack in the (near?) future.

The Blackout affected more than 40 million people. In Toronto, streetcars and subways stopped in their tracks. Traffic lights were replaced by volunteer traffic directors. Hundreds of thousands were stranded and what's even worse, they didn't even know why. How many of those hundreds of thousands were unprepared for the inability to use electrical devices?

I recently joined Facebook, a networking hub that almost instantaneously connected me with dozens of people I haven't seen in more than six years. But all that connects me to them is made possible with electrical signals that float through wire and cable, the veins of a technological world.

When blood stops traveling through the veins in a body, the being dies.

With everyone so reliant on everything electrical, it's important to at least be prepared. It's easy to not notice the cameras constantly monitoring us, or how electronic savvy teens are getting younger and younger.

Tips to prevent your immediate household are to impractically unplug everything in an outlet or connected to an antenna before a hit, wrap every cable with vacuum tubing, or to invest in hoards of batteries and battery operated devices such as radios.

And unfortunately, much like global warming, it's a reality we know we should face but for some reason put in the backs of our minds.

I guess it's just something else to think about.