> Waking up, your alarm wouldn’t work. Unless you have a gas grill, you can say goodbye to your morning toast. Your car wouldn’t start (or brake, or steer, or do anything really). Trains, without signaling, would be dead weight. Automatic doors at the entrance to your office, school, or favorite coffee shop would remain resolutely shut. Your PC, your DVD player, your wireless router, your digital camera, your smartphone — all computers everywhere would be dead.
I feel that he's trying to overstate the role of modern electrical activity in our lives. Using myself as a counterexample:
* I, along with many other people, wake up without an alarm clock of any sort. And Mechanical alarm clocks exist, and are completely suitable.
* I do actually have a gas grill, along with most self-respecting cooks, it's a superior heating element. (I also cannot eat toast) and other than the starter, that continues to work without power.
* I do not take a car to work, an average car, while technically uses "electricity" it is never connected to the electrical grid, and afaik, the only reason it needs a battery is for the starter, which there are other ways around. Additionally, very few of the fundamental properties of a car are dependent on electricity. In fact many cars on the road today will continue to function (however poorly without power steering and the like) without electricity.
* The fact that signaling for trains is electrical, is a symptom of convenience, not a fundamental requirement.
* None of the doors I encounter frequently are automatic, not at my home, my office, or any of the coffee shops, or stores I frequent. Other than large department stores, automatic doors seem to be the exception.
* Yes, all my electrical devices would be dead, but seriously mentioning "DVD Player" as if it's important.
Then he goes on to completely skip the most noticeable life-changer when electricity goes out, Lighting. Modern electrical lighting has to be the most significant way that electricity affects our lives, and completely transforms the night.
That's not to say removal of electricity won't cause problems, specifically the "Instant" removal of electricity, but our fundamental dependence on it seems exaggerated.