In last weekSA国际影视传媒檚 column, I wrote about the way surveillance cameras seem to be taking over the entire planet. Shortly after writing that column, the news was full of reports that hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies were exploding in Lebanon.

It seems we are entering a new stage of electronic devices warfare. Humans do seem to like to come up with new methods of doing one another harm and they like to rush into new technologies without really thinking through the side effects.

Do you remember when someone was caught smuggling explosives onto a plane in their shoes, even though it was a bit of a dud? Suddenly everyone had to take their shoes off and put them through a scanner before boarding the plane. Thankfully, no one has tried to smuggle clothes that explode, or everyone would have to travel naked. With the pager attack on Lebanon, in future, all electronic devices like pagers, walkie-talkies and even cell phones now have to go through the scanners.

Cell phones became popular in the 1990s and now most people, even school kids, have them. Imagine what would happen if all the cell phones and services suddenly stopped working. A good blast of solar radiation could do this. Can you imagine the chaos, confusion, hysteria and mental breakdowns that would occur? Yet no one, other then the ham radio people, have any back up for communications should this occur. Not many people know Morse code or semaphore these days.

Whatever system you put in place; you always need a backup system just in case it fails. That is, you want to be ready for the inevitable system failure. You need to have a plan of what to do and the right equipment to implement the plan. So what system is in place should all the cell phones suddenly malfunction and stop working?

Electricity is an awesome and useful thing. Nature is alive with it. But one has to be careful because you donSA国际影视传媒檛 want to get struck by lightning or touch a live electrical wire. Mammals, including humans, operate in part on electricity because the nerves send electrical signals through our bodies. These electrical signals control our voluntary and some of our involuntary movements. Basically, we run in part on electricity and without it, we couldnSA国际影视传媒檛 move or think.

Just think about it - our buildings hide electrical grids of wires carrying electricity and big power cables create a mesh of wires throughout our cities. So most of us are living inside an electrical cage, much like the ones Tesla experimented with. The question is how much does external electricity affect our internal electricity?

And if it does, do we take this into consideration to design a better safer system and devices? The world is becoming one great big human electrical grid.

Decades ago, when I was getting my blasters licence, I had to read the blaster's handbook and write a test. One of the questions was SA国际影视传媒淗ow close can you use electric blasting caps to a power line?SA国际影视传媒�

Yes, power lines have an electromagnetic field around them, and you donSA国际影视传媒檛 want to set off the caps you may have in your hand, especially if they are already in sticks of dynamite. I wonder if they have added a section on wind turbines, solar panels and electrical vehicles?

Here is the thing: humans seem to rush into using these new technologies only to find out later they arenSA国际影视传媒檛 as cheap, safe and efficient as some claim. People rush to use electronic devices and then later discover the long-term use may have health effects.

Yup, itSA国际影视传媒檚 a crazy world but we are learning. I hope.