{"id":16350,"date":"2025-04-30T19:43:01","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T19:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1413381"},"modified":"2025-04-30T19:43:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T19:43:01","slug":"europes-biggest-blackout-made-me-confront-my-dependence-on-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=16350","title":{"rendered":"Europe\u2019s biggest blackout made me confront my dependence on tech"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Unprecedented power cuts swept across Portugal, Spain, and parts of France on Monday \u2014 instantly unravelling the tech-dependent lives of me and tens of millions of others. <\/span><\/p>\n

At first, I wasn\u2019t worried. Then the owner of my Lisbon apartment forwarded me a link: an article in<\/span> The Sun<\/span><\/i> newspaper titled \u201cSpain & Portugal hit by huge power cuts\u2026\u201d I tried to open it, but the page wouldn\u2019t load. After a few minutes of backup power, the mobile networks were dead.<\/span><\/p>\n

I walked down to my local caf\u00e9, hoping to get some more information. \u201cWe have no idea what\u2019s going on \u2014 nothing is working,\u201d the owner told me, gesturing to her dead till. She was only serving sandwiches and drinks, and like every other shop, could only accept cash.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the shop\u2019s customers approached me. \u201cThey\u2019re saying it might be a Russian cyberattack,\u201d he said, looking remarkably laid back. \u201cThink of it as a free holiday,\u201d he laughed. <\/span><\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t laughing. I had no physical cash on me. That meant I couldn\u2019t buy food, and without electricity, I couldn\u2019t cook what I had in the fridge. I also know water networks rely on electric pumps. Plus, I had three young kids at home wondering whether Dad would ever fix the TV.  <\/span><\/p>\n

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Trying to keep calm and cool in the 30-degree heat, I left the store searching for an ATM. The first one was completely dead. The next had power, but only let me check my balance. Cash machines need internet to connect to banking servers and authorise withdrawals \u2014 without it, they\u2019re just glowing boxes of false hope.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI took the train to Lisbon this morning, but now I can\u2019t get home,\u201d said a man in his 30s who was also trying to withdraw cash to take a taxi. We chatted for a few minutes, speculating on the potential causes of the blackout. \u201cI heard on the radio that it might be something to do with the weather,\u201d he said, referencing a <\/span>now-debunked<\/span><\/a> claim that the outage was caused by \u201cinduced atmospheric vibration\u201d from extreme temperature or pressure shifts disturbing power lines. <\/span>I wondered whether this was a technical fault or something more malicious. <\/span><\/p>\n

I walked on in search of more concrete information. Eventually, I found it at the local hospital, the only place I could find with electricity and WiFi, thanks to its backup diesel generators. Scanning the headlines, I was met with some good news. Officials said there was no sign of a cyberattack. Despite all my Hollywood-fuelled fears, Europe<\/a> wasn\u2019t being invaded and there was definitely no zombie apocalypse. <\/span><\/p>\n

The bad news, however, was that no one had any idea when power would be restored. Some sources said a few hours. Others said a week, maybe longer. I headed home empty-handed and with few assurances \u2014 and no way to fix the TV. As the sun set, I was worried. \u201cNow I get why people build doomsday bunkers,\u201d I said to my wife. <\/span><\/p>\n

Offline and unprepared<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The blackout of April 28 was the largest in European history. Over 60 million people were left without power. Mobile networks were knocked out. Card machines and ATMs went dark. Airports closed, trains were left stranded on the tracks, and with the traffic light disabled, congestion piled up. Some people were trapped in <\/span>elevators<\/span><\/a> and underground metro systems for hours. In Spain, at least <\/span>five people<\/span><\/a> are thought to have died due to the incident.    <\/span><\/p>\n

In a matter of minutes, modern European life, so dependent on electricity, data, and instant connectivity, ground to a halt. While power was restored to most of Spain and Portugal by midnight on Monday, the incident has raised serious questions about Europe\u2019s infrastructure, security, and resilience. For me, it\u2019s also sparked a more personal reckoning with my tech<\/a> dependence, and just how unprepared I am for when the systems I rely on go dark.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always seen myself as pretty self-reliant. I grew up in South Africa, where (planned) blackouts were part of life and unpredictability came baked into the day. I used to camp, forage, and cook meals over open fires. I like making things with my hands. I thought I had a good handle on surviving without the grid.<\/span><\/p>\n

But like most, especially in the west, I\u2019ve become deeply tethered to technology. When the blackout hit, all those systems collapsed \u2014 and so did the illusion of my independence. My fridge was full, but I couldn\u2019t cook. My phone had a charge, but no signal. My apps were blind. My digital wallet might as well have been Monopoly money.  <\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just the gadgets that failed \u2014 it was the mental safety net they\u2019d built. No news, no way to contact family, no idea how big the outage was. I realised I\u2019d outsourced most of my decision-making to invisible infrastructures. <\/span><\/p>\n

The kids were calm, oblivious to the potential risks. We played board games by candlelight and watched the sun set over a city lit only by headlights and moonlight. But in my head, I was calculating: how long would the tap water run? Did we have enough food that didn\u2019t need cooking? What if this lasted longer? What if it happened again?<\/span><\/p>\n

The blackout only lasted a day. But the aftershocks \u2014 at least for me \u2014 haven\u2019t stopped. I\u2019m now thinking about storing cash at home, keeping extra water, buying a gas stove, and a radio. Maybe even moving to the countryside where I could grow my own food.<\/span><\/p>\n

The blackout was a wake-up call. Not to prep for the end of the world, but to reckon with just how much I\u2019d handed over to systems I don\u2019t control \u2014 and barely understand.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unprecedented power cuts swept across Portugal, Spain, and parts of France on Monday \u2014 instantly unravelling the tech-dependent lives of me and tens of millions of others.  At first, I wasn\u2019t worried….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16350"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}