Daniel Wigton on Nostr: It isn't a matter of pretending. It is a matter of alternative interpretation driven ...

It isn't a matter of pretending. It is a matter of alternative interpretation driven by a different set of operating assumptions. I wouldn't presume to belittle your reasoning, but neither do I believe it to be correct.

I have to operate based my own reasoning. My understanding of the world tells me that while the situation you describe is not impossible, it is improbable to the point where it would be imprudent for me to allocate resources to defending against it.

I do agree that a magnetic reversal is inevitable, but I don't know on what time scale. It could be 20 years it could be 20,000 years. It is a rare enough thing that I have to question any higher precision claims.

But even if one does occur in my lifetime I am not worried for two reasons.

The first is that physics will still work. This means electronics will work as long as the operating environment relatively benign. I have reason to believe that it won't be within a few orders of magnitude of our current environment.

The role of the magnetic field in defending the surface of the earth is overstated. It does slow the stripping of the atmosphere by the solar wind, but that is a process that takes billions of years. Look at Mars, with no magnetic field and a much weaker gravitational field, it still holds on to a tenuous atmosphere.

It is the atmosphere itself that shields us from solar radiation. That is what those aurora are, charge particles slamming into the atmosphere instead of into the surface.

Electronics are sensitive to solar events due to induced current, but I don't think that is materially altered by the Earth's magnetic field. Any event large enough to induce damaging currents would simply overwhelm our meager field.

But that is mainly a problem for long baseline conductors. Your home electronics will probably be fine. The grid, maybe not so much. So it may be prudent to get your own generator or solar panels.

My other reason for not worrying, is that the absolute worst that can happen is that my family and I are caught woefully unprepared and die and go to heaven. That is no excuse to be unprepared for a likely situation, but I still need not fear it.

The thing is, that there are a near infinite set of possible catastrophes that I have no control over. Wars, volcanoes, tornados, lightning strikes, evil governments, angry neighbors, sickness etc. all of it could wipe out my family without warning. I can be prudent to prepare for high-frequency events, but in the end I am 100% reliant on the mercy of God.