When all else fails go back to basics. What would we do if there were a week long or month long world-wide blackout???? Makes me shiver. We should have started (in a much more serious effort) to find alt energy years ago.

when all else fails...then there's us, the humans!!! i love it!!!!!

The fact that people use technology doesn't mean the world's going to be doomed if there were a day/week/month long blackout. For the guy who still uses a pen and paper, if it does the job then so be it. I'm pretty sure people will still be able to figure out how to use a pen and paper.

Henry David Thoreau said in Walden Pond that : "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone". I'm sure he wrote this with a quill pen and ink. I'm no Luddite, but I still know how to use a slide rule and do so occasionally. No batteries required.

This is the internet age and we cannot but flow with it. I enjoy such technologies considering the ease it has brought to human lives. I believe one day that our companies, government and other organised private sectors will key into the idea of the DIGITAL NERVOUS SYSTEM.

Wow, I didn't know you could still buy analog data inscription devices, let alone spiral-bound data storage media!

Even though I have all the modern electronics aboard, I still use the"old" way of navigation and just use the electronics to confirm my manual navigation. It is good to have modern electronics but the manual way is more enriching.

Old school: paper and pen never fail and do not require battery.

Being in the military I have seen all sorts of technologies. One common tool used is a DAGR which is our GPS unit, but we are still trained to be able to use a map and compass. When technology fails, batteries die, things don't go as planned, a reliable backup is a must.

As a seasoned reporter, I must day my pencil saved me several times when batteries were in short supply....interviews and press conferences are special events and you need to get those quotes. I love all new media, but I worry sometimes if the next generation will know how to roast a marshmallow and sew on a button. Guess I should give funds to the girl scouts and boy scouts. Also can humans still amuse themselves by daydreaming while wating for an airplane, is there a generation of potential robots who MUST have an electronic toy in hand at all times that may have lost a few psi skills, like oh, coming up with their own thoughts, ideas and inventions? the REAL future is still in the minds of those with original thoughts....

@There are people who do have week long and month long black out. The last time i checked, they are still alive and living.
its funny how we take all these for granted when in the other side of the world, people dont even have the basic things of life

Love the comment about the slide rule. Actually found mine and did a couple of calculations with it. Sure there are many more I have forgotten. Wonder how many young people even know about them or how to use them. A few I talked to have said they are not accurate enough but somehow they managed to get people to the moon and back. Will take my chances on that anytime.

I find pen and paper much better than typing for most things, especially if I'm trying to figure out something such as a math problem. Now if only we can teach kids how to play "manually" vice electronically.

Further evidence that we as a people are becoming overly dependent on technology.