Are We Prepared for a Real Life Situation With a Sudden Loss of Tech?

[Hummin]

17 minutes ago, SkyNets said:

Seen too many doomsday movies, what do you mean 🙂

Your sons room, man cave or bunker?

[Magictoad]

No: is the brief answer to your question 

"Are We Prepared for a Real Life Situation With a Sudden Loss of Tech?"

[spidermike007]

Yes. I am not only prepared, I would love it. I would love watching Thai women being without their phones and their social media for a day or two, it would be an incredible sight to behold. 

 

 

[SkyNets]

23 minutes ago, Hummin said:

Your sons room, man cave or bunker?

Cave 🙂 Been here since the 2011 floods, that was a wake up call. Doesn't hurt to have some kit ready.

[impulse]

1 hour ago, Hummin said:

Your sons room, man cave or bunker?

 

First stop on the zombies' shopping tour.

 

[WDSmart]

No, we are not prepared for that... 

[Sorted2024]

Its coming anyhow 

[SkyNets]

16 hours ago, impulse said:

 

First stop on the zombies' shopping tour.

 

🙂 rest is normal lol 

[Patong2021]

19 hours ago, save the frogs said:

no, months stock is useless because that's a doomsday scenario where people will be killing each other. 

 

a few days of backup as OP suggests is a good idea. 

 

don't supermarkets have backup generators? so all  you need is cash on hand and you can still pop in to a supermarket for some food. 

 

Not a major supermarket. They operate on POS technology that  maintains inventory and does the  additions at the cash. How do you propose the cashier process a 50 item order at checkout? An abacus? longhand sums?

 

The backup generators at supermarkets, if they are available, are intended to cover critical refrigeration and freezers and not much else. 7-11s, Little C's , Tops would most likely close. Small shops might operate subject to long lines.

[Presnock]

23 hours ago, hankypankee said:

I'm really surprised at all the idiotic replies so far. Actually, I'm not that shocked given the lack of basic intelligence around here. I guess trying to fix stupid is far harder than asking somebody to charge up a power bank just in case the power goes out. 
 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/28/spain-portugal-power-outage 

 

https://www.theverge.com/news/657017/major-blackout-spain-portugal-france-europe

 

https://www.engadget.com/general/theres-a-massive-power-outage-cross-spain-portugal-and-parts-of-france-183025048.html
 

https://www.wired.com/story/europe-blackout-spain-portugal-power-outage/
 

 

In your scenario, you should have mentioned not enough cash to buy beer or smoke some dope and that would have gotten the attn and no money no honey would have grabbed a few more.  The biggest problem I see is the time required to get back to some kind of normal once something like that hits.  Some of the storms in many different places must have been like that afterwards for quite some time.

[Thingamabob]

Not bothered. Having lived and worked in, inter-alia, war zones and unpredictable autocracies, I'll start thinking about it if and when it happens.

 

[SkyNets]

23 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

 

thats a nudgebar... will do feck all.

 

Plenty of places to ram raid.

Actually steel plate and tubing, but know what you mean. Feel free to post yours

[harryviking]

On 5/27/2025 at 4:18 AM, hankypankee said:

I am not talking about a total collapse or global cyber war where the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, North Koreans or some other bad actor completely takes out the grid in some dystopian plot to bring the world to a halt. I’m only suggesting a temporary outage. Like the power blackout that hit parts of Spain and Portugal at the end of April. Power gone for a day, no internet, no phone charging, no digital payments. Suddenly, modern life grinds to a halt without any explanation. People who rely entirely on their phones found themselves cut off, not just from the nonsense worlds of Instagram and TikTok, but from real information, communication, even the ability to buy food because they couldn’t use digital technology to make payments.

 

In moments like that, it’s not the end of the world, but it can feel like it if you’re not ready, especially if you don’t really know what’s happening or how long it’s going to last. Situations where you can’t charge your phone. No QR codes. No apps. No bank transfers. You can’t even pay with a physical debit or credit card. And unless you’ve got an old-school radio stashed away with batteries in it, you won’t even know what’s actually going on. It’s the kind of situation where real cash is suddenly needed again, and so is having a bit of backup power.

 

I’m not talking about being one of those prepper nutters building fully sustained underground bunkers and hoarding ten years of canned beans. Just about common sense. Do you have a power bank of at least 20,000 milliamp with at least one full charge on it so that it could charge your phone for a few days? Do you have at least a few hundred dollar equivalent in banknotes (preferably in a mix of a few different currencies) stashed somewhere in the house in case the ATM machines stop working for a while? It’s amazing how quickly we’ve gone from “I’ll just tap my phone” to forgetting that without electricity, all of that vanishes.

 

The truth is, most of us assume the lights will always stay on, the signal will always be there, the card machine will always work, and 99% of the time that’s true. But what if it doesn’t, just for a day or two? Can you still function? Can you buy food, get home, check on family, or even just find out TF is going on?

 

It’s a useful reminder that for all our high-tech habits, the basics still matter. A bit of cash. A charged battery pack. A flashlight. Maybe even an old school radio with real buttons. Not because the world’s ending, but because sometimes, sh*t can happen and it’s nice to be able to keep going when it does.

I would have a gun loaded and ready also. 😎

[SkyNets]

Most will be camping in their Embassy’s car park after a month.

[BritManToo]

17 minutes ago, SkyNets said:

Most will be camping in their Embassy’s car park after a month.

 

I'd suggest a Thai temple as they will provide you with food and a roof.

[ElwoodP]

Off topic posts removed.

[SkyNets]

Just now, ElwoodP said:

Off topic posts removed.

Normally its Arnold Rimmer who has me lol I'll be good 🙂

[ericbj]

On 5/27/2025 at 9:21 AM, novacova said:

Paranoid? Spending too much time looking at doomsday stuff on the internet? 

Wait a few months, maybe less, and you will have to pull your head out of the sand.

[Caldera]

Agree with the OP.

 

Even after the recent earthquake that caused hardly any real damage in Bangkok, my phone's internet connection was unreliable for quite a while (too many people sharing videos of overflowing swimming pools?), so having a bit of CASH to buy a few bottles of water and orange juice while camped outside waiting to be allowed to get back into the building definitely helped.