[ireleda]

This isn’t really a Science question, more of a technical one.


Let’s say, for science-fiction purposes, everyone who’s been exposed to digital text, woke up tomorrow, unable to read.



What would happen if within 48 hours – no literate person could read? And could not re-learn to read.

What would happen to society? To the power supply, to communication, to your food and water supply? What would you do? What would the guy with his finger on the button at NORAD do?

How long would a coal-fired power station run if no one could read? What would the global news network do without text? Radio? The Internet? Hamburger distribution?


Rhetorical question? I'm writing the story of Babel, and I'm not sure what the first riot would be about.

[addisonnicogel]

Many people don't need to be able to read to perform a lot of the functions of their work... Unless of course by 'forgetting how to read' you include not being able to interpret gauges or reconginising non-alfanumeric characters....

I don't think the world would grind to a halt.

[OmqMZtkv]

and I'm not sure what the first riot would be about.
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The sacking of all the journalists and replacing them cartoonists.

[nermise]

>>> forgetting how to read' you include not being able to interpret gauges or reconginising non-alfanumeric characters....

Yes, to clarify - people are unable to read - what they've been reading - in any digital form.

[AttableBewNaw]

>>> forgetting how to read' you include not being able to interpret gauges or reconginising non-alfanumeric characters....

Yes, to clarify - people are unable to read - what they've been reading - in any digital form.

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Even then, I could spend the morning of day one running around to the various guages I use daily and marking a 'normal' position with a permanent marker.

The not being able to re-learn is a bit strange though. It would be hard to define the cutoff line between digital text and a picture.

[Pipindula]

I could only make wild guesses at the others but I can at least give a bit of an answer for this one as a friend of mine runs one of the new coal-fired stations at Tarong.

How long would a coal-fired power station run if no one could read?

It's a Japanese unit that's designed to run for two years at full power with very little human intervention, it's almost all computer controlled. It'll certainly run for at least a couple of days without anyone putting a spanner on it.
The big problem is it is, unsurprisingly, quite thirsty for coal and that requires humans to transport it from the coal fields to the bunkers where the machinery picks it up, cleans & pulverises it into dust that the station needs.
I'd hazard a guess that there would be little more than a day's worth of coal in the bunkers at any one time before it effectively ran out.

[neguoogleX]

I'd hazard a guess that there would be little more than a day's worth of coal in the bunkers at any one time before it effectively ran out.
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But the guys that drive the coal diggers and coal trucks could do it without being able to read. Paying them would become hard, you couldn't use EFT anymore so it would have to be cash. But the cash notes need to be differentiated somehow. Am i allowed to recognise that a note with the picture of Parliament House is different to the note with horse? Or can I use the colour pink v blue? Or do I measure them to know that the longer one is worth more than the shorter one?

[rionetrozasa]

>> The not being able to re-learn is a bit strange though. It would be hard to define the cutoff line between digital text and a picture.

Very good point, and one I've struggled with.

I'm thinking that our brains read these differently enough that the culturally symbolic 'load' of text is an order of magnitude higher.

[HakTaisanip]

I'd hazard a guess that there would be little more than a day's worth of coal in the bunkers at any one time before it effectively ran out.
------------
But the guys that drive the coal diggers and coal trucks could do it without being able to read. Paying them would become hard, you couldn't use EFT anymore so it would have to be cash. But the cash notes need to be differentiated somehow. Am i allowed to recognise that a note with the picture of Parliament House is different to the note with horse? Or can I use the colour pink v blue? Or do I measure them to know that the longer one is worth more than the shorter one?

Possible ..... I don't know.
Certainly with the level of machinery used to keep the bunkers fed they aren't too complex and with a bit of time on them you wouldn't need to read the controls much.

[reiseebup]

Ironically, "'Hulk", the only thing I was sure of, was the coal-fired power station (sorry). Also, strangely,
in my story, the 'text blindness' is often characterized by text appearing as an RC Code - Just like your avatar.

Hows that for a co-incidence.

[shashaffff]

Ironically, "'Hulk", the only thing I was sure of, was the coal-fired power station (sorry). Also, strangely,
in my story, the 'text blindness' is often characterized by text appearing as an RC Code - Just like your avatar.

Hows that for a co-incidence.

All part of my cunning plan.

[LeaderBiz]

The first riots would be about the whole financial system grinding to a halt before anything else does. Most people who work machinery would be able to "play it by ear", so to speak.

But if every supermarket was unable to tally up your grocery bill, and your employer couldn't calculate your wages, and so on, and so forth, well...

[FelikTen]

An upside is the trolls on the SSSF would be somewhat less annoying.

[Tij84ye]

Let’s say, for science-fiction purposes, everyone who’s been exposed to digital text, woke up tomorrow, unable to read. What would happen if within 48 hours – no literate person could read? And could not re-learn to read.

What would happen to society? To the power supply, to communication, to your food and water supply? What would you do? What would the guy with his finger on the button at NORAD do?

How long would a coal-fired power station run if no one could read? What would the global news network do without text? Radio? The Internet? Hamburger distribution?

Rhetorical question? I'm writing the story of Babel, and I'm not sure what the first riot would be about. Reminds me of Ray Bradbury "Fahrenheit 451" where all the books in the world have been burnt by "firemen".
Also reminds me of the "utopian" scene in the Simpsons where all the TV sets stop working causing all the children to play happily outdoors.

> I don't think the world would grind to a halt.

I can't agree with that. The flow of money would be seriously hampered. People would still be able to recognise hard cash by the size and colour, but credit cards could no longer be used. ATMs wouldn't dispense money. What about cash registers? Would people still be able to buy anything if they couldn't read the prices?

The web, newspapers, stock market would instantly be dead of course.

The more I think about it, the more I think that the loss of over 99% of money flow in the world would be the overriding factor leading to the first riots. But would it be riots or would it be say like the New Orleans floods - an emergency handled badly but without violence? I'm inclined to think the latter.

I don't see that it would have any influence on Australian Politics. Neither Julia Guillard nor Tony Abbott show any signs of being able to read.

Hackers would suddenly have to stop.

One juicy bit would be what happens at a classical concert, when the musicians of the orchestra suddenly can't read the music in front of them. Some would stop, some would try to continue, with possibly hilarious results.

Many people would suddenly find themselves out of a job. But some computer applications may continue. For example, computer aided design (CAD) would have to be "by eye" rather than by dimensions, leading to less exact objects. Many industrial designs and software would freeze solid because nobody could alter them. Web searches would suddenly shift to being image and icon based rather than text-based.

I keep in mind that I have visited a couple of countries where I couldn't speak or read the language. I muddled through.

Most telephones would still work, people would memorise the order that the buttons are in so still use it. But you couldn't ring up anyone you don't know unless you invent a new symbology such as check marks to write down numbers that you hear.

Law and movies are two industries that would be hard hit. Script writers would be suddenly called onto the set where they could tell the actors what to say. Policemen would have to give their evidence directly to court without notes. Disputes over, for example, land title could not be settled. Handling most white collar crime would be impossible.

Universities would be hard hit. Every session would have to be a laboratory session. IQ everywhere drops, like http://xkcd.com/903/ but worse.

I assume that machines wouldn't be able to read, so tollways relying on automatic number plate recognition would be unable to levy tolls. The postal service would die as nobody could deliver letters and parcels. In fact, even finding a house in a street that you've never been to would be impossible.

"Improve your memory" courses would boom.

Digital watches are out, analog watches are in. TV survives by playing reruns. Radio survives by playing "random selection".

I have a conceptual problem here. Can computers still read computer code? If not, then the train network freezes solid and factories everywhere go instantly out of control. Let's assume that that doesn't happen.

> What would happen to society?

Do people continue working if they're no longer being paid? That's a key question to answer. There have been many times in history when pay has suddenly been cut off, I've just been reading about nuclear weapons experts in the USSR whose pay was cut off for three months following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Most of them survived, by bartering and by taking odd jobs.

The other key question is about shops. Would shops be able to buy and sell anymore when nobody can read the price tags? This would take a while to sort out. The sooner a system of chits replaced credit the better. Also, the sooner the mint starts producing huge volumes of hard cash to distribute to the banks the better.

A huge number of people would suddenly find themselves unemployed. Blue collar crime, particularly theft, would soar initially. Until law was taken away from the courts and given to the police and army. If it gets too bad then martial law would have to be declared, that has happened before. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_law

> To the power supply?

With the breakdown of electronic funds transfer, this depends on who would keep working without pay, on the understanding that they will get back pay some time in the future. Wind power, solar electric and hydroelectric power basically operate themselves - they'd survive. Coal and oil powered would wind down if and when supplies dwindle - A couple of weeks for coal and an uncertain length of time for oil. So electric power supply would drop, but not shut off except in peak periods and at random times as the load is shifted.

Natural gas supply to consumers may or may not work, depending on how belligerent the workers get.

> To communication?

Email, newspapers, computer, postal communication are out. Ditto pigeon post by the way. Telephone would survive for quite a while, probably landline better than mobile phones. Our reliance on telephones would increase enormously.

> To your food?

Everything is finely balanced, and depends on petrol. Once petrol shuts down everybody suffers. However, food shippers can quickly work out a barter system. Barter food transport for food, then barter food for petrol. Food shipments continue. Petrol stations sell food. If petrol starts to dry up, what would happen is that cars cease to be widely used but motorbikes and trucks would be as widely used as before, perhaps more so.

> water supply?

Should be OK, except for inevitable breakdowns over time. And by then some alternative payment system could be worked out.

> What would you do?

Panic, for about two days. Then work out some system for cutting expenses. Repair my bicycle. Work out how to buy goods from shops using chits or hard cash. Can banks still dispense cash? Can you grow crops from birdseed?

> What would the guy with his finger on the button at NORAD do?

That's a misconception. There's an asymmetry between how the USA and Russia handle missile defence. In the USA the only button is handled by the president. No-one else can fire the missiles unless the president is unable to function, and then it diverts to two other politicians in turn. So no-one at NORAD has his finger on the button.

Russia has a different system. The president has only an advisory role. There is a finger on the button at the Russian equivalent of NORAD.

> How long would a coal-fired power station run if no one could read?

I've worked at a steelworks. I got the impression that most of the workers there could not or did not read English. That may also be true of a coal fired power station. How long it stays online would depend on at least three factors:
1) How many workers will stay on the job when they can't get their pay out of their bank accounts?
2) How heavily computerised is the operation? Displays could be analog (gauges), not too much problem there. They could be graphical, again not too much problem. Or they could be digital, big problems. By eye and experience a coal-fired plant ought to be able to keep working at reduced power.
3) When the coal runs out. The coal may not run out at all if some chit, barter or cash system could be set up fast. Anyone know how big a coal stockpile is?

> What would the global news network do without text?

Ideally it would die - it's a total waste anyway. Unfortunately the global news would keep going using Skype, interviews and photographs. Let's just hope they don't start televising parliament during newshour.

> Radio?

Random selection of tracks and online interviews. Some radio stations do that already. Community radio would survive better because the DJs aren't paid.

> The Internet?

Goodbye text searching. I fairly often access websites where I don't understand a word because I don't know the language. Following hyperlinks and using the back button a lot usually suffices. Transfer of cash by the internet would not be feasible, and that's a problem. This is a pity.

With so many people using the internet it would be good if they spent less time on it. But internet games would mostly survive.

> Hamburger distribution?

Goodbye big chains and hello corner shops - I hope. But a system of shouted orders and cash would suffice. It may actually boom.

[Chito]

Let’s say, for science-fiction purposes, everyone who’s been exposed to digital text, woke up tomorrow, unable to read.

Wasn't that was one of the substories told in Douglas Coupland's Generation A?

[hieklyintinee]

Mollwollfumble,

I appreciate your amusing response. It was very good.


But I’m thinking that the bread would have run out long before script writers stopped getting contracts. More or less as Boxhead said. And I suggested.



This Random Guy>

>> Wasn't that was one of the substories told in Douglas Coupland's Generation A?

I don’t know who Douglas Coupland is. (Des he know who I am?)

[Vagtlaldo]

Fahrenheit 451

[avaissema]

>> Fahrenheit 451

Not really. Not at all.

not, "1984", either. read the OP.

[DoctorQuquriramba]

> But I’m thinking that the bread would have run out long before script writers stopped getting contracts.

Yes, you are thinking that. Whether it is true depends on which managers are going to say "I won't deliver the goods until the paperwork is done". I'm thinking that that is unlikely to happen immediately, or if it does happen immediately will soon be countermanded as a response to complaints from customers (wholesale customers for manufacturers, retail customers for wholesalers, the public for retailers).

I suspect that most people in a position of influence will respond "thank goodness there's no paperwork to be done".

[Psymoussy]

>> I suspect that most people in a position of influence will respond "thank goodness there's no paperwork to be done".

No, they'll be thinking, "I have t deliver 100 kilos of flour to...er...er... I can't read this."

And yes, the bread will run out in two days. Same for the beans, the petrol and civilisation.