ZetaTalk: Generating Electricity
Note: written Dec, 2002

Modern man is much dependent upon electricity, though only having arrived there within the last hundred years or so. In primitive countries, communities work hard during the day, sleep at dusk, rise at dawn, and have little need of lights except for the occasional lamp or campfire. In pre-industrial days, this was likewise the mode, even the interiors of castles and palaces lit only by lamps, and then dimly. Modern man expects labor saving devices, entertainment, communication with the world, all at the press of a button. Modern man will have to do a mega-mindshift after the shift if he thinks this will continue, as his life will be less than communities a century ago, for the following reasons:

1. Where in the past, sunlight even on gloomy days could be anticipated, after the shift for most parts of the world the light available will seem like going from dawn to dusk, skipping the mid-daylight entirely.
2. Oils and materials to burn, for light, will be scarce or water soaked, what with continuous drizzle in much of the world, so fires will be a treasured occurrence from carefully dried materials.
3. Batteries and generators will wear out within months, after continuous use by the desperate, with the shock of what has descended only coming late to these, not avoided.
4. Petro fuels, or fuels from vegetation such as corn or wood gas, will run out without the means to pump, refine, or grow in the gloom.
5. The lack of parts for mechanical repair, lack of skills in those isolated, and lack of success with crops, will doom all plans for fuels to be burned in the Aftertime.
6. Skills to build generators collecting power from wind and water will be spotty, and the missing link theory applied endlessly such that a single link, like battery storage, dooms the plans.
7. Hopes at being rescued, that benign space brothers will arrive, or high tech communities of hybrids, is held close by those not fully Service-to-Other such that they would not qualify, as the truly Service-to-Other are not thinking of rescue, but of those needing to be rescued.

In light of all this, what can mankind expect? Nancy has been practicing, walking about her hour for months now, in the dark such that she must grope to steady herself, and use touch, not sight, as a guide. Lights are used only when absolutely necessary. Practice this, and see how little you need light to walk through your day! Story telling, group singing, eating and washing, enjoying the sounds and smells of the evening, none of this requires more than light enough to make out dim shapes. Those who are used to electric lights, and in groups where the lack of this has plunged the group into depression, have avenues to generate this. Exercise is one of the great depression lifters, and racks of old bicycles, with the complainers pumping away, is not only a means of generating lights during the session, it is a group activity! Group therapy, thus, becomes an exercise session where the 12V batteries are replenished. And perhaps the children would like to put on a play, practiced in the dark when they are put to bed and should be sleeping, whispered plans to surprise the adults. The bike gen's can provide a flood light for their stage! Thus, it is not so much a loss, as a challenge, an opportunity to be resourceful, as all of life is.

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