this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2025
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In 2003, there was a massive power outage over a big chunk of the midwest. Power was out for about three days. My entire city just kinda... shut down and took a break.
It wasn't all great--a few elderly folks even died of heat stroke (it was hot, in the middle of summer if I remember right). But there were some positives: the city functioned as a community in a way I've never experienced before or since. It felt like we were all on a broken elevator together--a sudden sense of camaraderie in the face of a shared experience.
Most businesses couldn't function, so everyone was pretty much outside in the parks and at the waterfront, and everyone seemed pretty welcoming to everyone else (they kinda had to be, there were a lot of people out). My dad had a portable generator, so we went around town taking turns at friends' houses to run their fridges and freezers for a while, and got to just spend time with them.
I don't expect that the world could function like that all the time, but it was kinda nice for a few days.
I wish it could happen repeatedly though. Like, once a month eg.
Let's bring more chaos to this process! At some random time during the month, the power grid will just automatically turn off. No warning. Just instant lights out.
Its duration will be determined by a log-normal distribution or similar. So the average duration will be 24 hours with a long thin tail going towards longer durations. There will be a very small chance power is out for the whole month. There will be an even smaller chance power will be out for a whole year. Also, the duration will not be announced at the start of the outage. You'll just have to sit there in the dark for who knows how long.
All home power generators will also have to be hooked up to this control system. Any home with active power during a deliberate grid blackout will be bombed by automatic drone.
You just perfectly described "load shedding". If you want to live your dream the good news is you could head to somewhere like South Africa right now. If you wanted to sprinkle in some drone strikes there's also lots of other countries you could get a holiday home in to experience them too.