The Moral Sense Test has a very Voight-Kampff feel to it, you know, "you're in a desert, walking along when you look down and you see a tortoise, Leon". There's no score given, so the test is really just research.

Another fix:

"Blackout" and "The Moral Sense" are two different articles.

I haven't taken the Moral Sense test . . . anyone?

Single points of failure are a well known vulnerability, and
it is risky not to pay attention to them. Electic power is a
single point of failure for many everyday systems: basically
everything you use that doesn't have backup power. Many of
things that use electricity in your life you can easily do
away with for a day or two: electric toothbrushes, cordless
phones; but it is wise to have redundancy.

I read several interesting accounts of people being affected
by the blackout even though they had prepared due to hidden
reliances on power. One person had a corded phone to use during
power outage, but then her building PBX didn't have back-up
power.

Edited by author 08-22-2003 06:14 PM
I certainly disagree with the author of the passage. Interconnectivity is the culprit but the author is not the only one who has recognized it. It is a big part of the current debate over the future of the control of power transmission, as news analysis of the political issues indicates. I wrote about that aspect of things in the reflections on the power failure in my weblog. Many people realize that those localities which were spared from the blackout were those where local control and perspicacity allowed someone to flip the switch and isolate their electric infrastructure from the northeastern grid before they were sucked dry and overloaded. With centralization comes automation of the connectivity, which would prevent such local heroics. Of course, there are other influences which cause some to be opposed to centralization. Utilities in parts of the US with cheap power (the Northwest) or relatively lower demand (the South) don't want to be slaves to the Northeast on economic grounds, not because of any foresight about the dangers of connectivity.

I don't know nothin' 'bout no blackout, but I sure feel like throwin' somebody in front of a train now.

closets for everyone!
m.

The solution then would be what? Elect Pat Buchanan and introvert totally?