I don't know how many of you have seen it but in the end he sends out an EMP that shuts down the Earth. They say in the movie that it would set us back 500 years. Now supposing this could actually happen... All electricy turned off and every computer erased from a giant EMP wave sent across the Earth. Wouldn't it be easy to get back to where we were? I mean sure it may be hard to get communications back up. That's what I would think would be the worst part. But after that would it really be that hard? Or would it be very difficult? I know it's just a movie but I'm trying to seperate the plausible fromt he impossible. Thanks to anyone who can think up an answer. (I notice I just picked a Vietnow-Rage against the machine randomly on my playlist. It just happens to be #666 on my playlist which was the "World code" to set off the device which shut down the Earth)
I never watched the movie, but assuming something wiped out all the techonology it shouldn't take as long to get back to where we were if we have the right leaders. Because I mean we wouln't have to invent everything right? We would already know how to do it... If that makes sense.
The only way to create an EMP strong enough to shut down every computer on earth would be many many nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, which would create a fallout that would be a bigger concern then electricity. Many communications were strengthened to the threat of EMP during the cold war. It's not impossible, but it's not very likely.
assuming one could create a series of emp's capable of this(it woud have to be a series instead of a sinlge one because no practical sing emp could be made which could effect the entire planet due to its magnetic field and core) there would have to be some special cases in which machines using curcuits would be unaffected. But to actually answer your question, the most it could possibly set us back is about 70 years, when we actually began utilizing items which would be effected by emp's. But even then, most of that time was due to the research that had to be done to create teh technology. So it would most likely take less then 70 years to return to our current state.
as a employee of general electric san diego i know a lot about emps.... the electromagnetic energy produced by radiation interacting with system hardware is called system generated EMP, or SGEMP. ... the pulse can easily span continent-sized areas, and this radiation can affect systems on land, sea, and air...there are three main types of explosions to consider when examining the effects of the electromagnetic pulse. These are near-surface busts, medium-altitude bursts, and high-altitude bursts.... it would take a very large warhead to create a emp to take out the entire earth.... but most communication centers and electrical equipment can withstand an emp, hemp, etc etc shockwave....they use metallic shielding and tailored hardening.... nowadays most systems are hardened.. like for instance nuclear missile guidance systems , communications, networks...blah blah blah.... yeah an emp charge could disrupt small electronic equipment... but it would not set us back 500 years.... all our main electronics are safe from a emp shockwave...
keep in mind what the people would do. your talking riots, looting, destruction. I think without technology or any form of communication it would be difficult to develop a form of responsible authority.
The loss of memory would turn almost all of our infrastructure OFF. Flood control, traffic lights, water system....how disruptive would depend on what the designers decided was the OFF condition. (Is the spillway open ON or OFF?) Gas pumps would refuse to pump gas until they got the proper signal. Even though they forget which signal is "proper." Almost all our tech would be down. I hope no one with a nuke gets freaked out when they find that they can't communicate with ANYONE. (I also hope that the military has lower tech back up communications with nuke bases.) How long it would take to get it back, would depend on how the EMP affected the back-up disks/tapes.
