The Rogers outage was a reminder that the failure of some technologies can make an entire society vulnerable. But we need to remember that software glitches are not the only threat.
At some point – perhaps next year, perhaps decades from now – the entire sky will turn red as a deluge of high-energy particles from the sun strikes Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere. As a result, power grids, telephones and the Internet could be inoperable for months – perhaps even years.
