We are slaves of electricity

"Just for a moment, suspend your scientific beliefs and imagine that electricity suddenly ceased to exist. Waking up, your alarm wouldn’t work. Unless you have a gas grill, you can say goodbye to your morning toast."

Uh, I'm not a scientist, but I imagine you would just die instantly.

It's not electricity. It's energy. Electricity is just a medium for transferring energy from source to destination. The amount of usable energy at our disposal is proportional to the level of technological advancement. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale

> Waking up, your alarm wouldn’t work. Unless you have a gas grill, you can say goodbye to your morning toast. Your car wouldn’t start (or brake, or steer, or do anything really). Trains, without signaling, would be dead weight. Automatic doors at the entrance to your office, school, or favorite coffee shop would remain resolutely shut. Your PC, your DVD player, your wireless router, your digital camera, your smartphone — all computers everywhere would be dead.

I feel that he's trying to overstate the role of modern electrical activity in our lives. Using myself as a counterexample:

* I, along with many other people, wake up without an alarm clock of any sort. And Mechanical alarm clocks exist, and are completely suitable.

* I do actually have a gas grill, along with most self-respecting cooks, it's a superior heating element. (I also cannot eat toast) and other than the starter, that continues to work without power.

* I do not take a car to work, an average car, while technically uses "electricity" it is never connected to the electrical grid, and afaik, the only reason it needs a battery is for the starter, which there are other ways around. Additionally, very few of the fundamental properties of a car are dependent on electricity. In fact many cars on the road today will continue to function (however poorly without power steering and the like) without electricity.

* The fact that signaling for trains is electrical, is a symptom of convenience, not a fundamental requirement.

* None of the doors I encounter frequently are automatic, not at my home, my office, or any of the coffee shops, or stores I frequent. Other than large department stores, automatic doors seem to be the exception.

* Yes, all my electrical devices would be dead, but seriously mentioning "DVD Player" as if it's important.

Then he goes on to completely skip the most noticeable life-changer when electricity goes out, Lighting. Modern electrical lighting has to be the most significant way that electricity affects our lives, and completely transforms the night.

That's not to say removal of electricity won't cause problems, specifically the "Instant" removal of electricity, but our fundamental dependence on it seems exaggerated.

I really hate this link-baity title. We are not slaves to electricity. It is a useful tool, and like all tools, it shapes the way we live our lives.

I really wish people wouldn't upvote this stuff. It's about 70% flowery, overwrought generalities about electricity, and 30% hand-wavey press-releases about battery technology. Admittedly, the battery technology bit could be interesting, but I'd really rather read something substantial about it.

The article goes on to focus on the need for advancement in battery technologies. Although the specific examples in view were mobile devices, I think that is one of the most interesting aspects of the work Tesla(TSLA) is doing. They are extremely motivated to make breakthroughs. Their business depends up on it.

And another Carrington event could fry all electronics, and possibly all electrical equipment depending on how powerful it is, at any time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_event