Thread by @hondanhon

"It was a very specific weapon... frankly, we don't understand the physics behind it. It doesn't make sense. It shouldn't be possible."
"I said just give me the bottom line."
"The 2.4GHz and 5GHz range just don't exist anymore."
"I'm dumb, what does that mean?
"No more Wifi."

"No more Wifi."
"Yep. And no more Bluetooth, either."
"So Wifi and Bluetooth are being jammed?"
"Not really. Jamming means someone's sending a more powerful signal to overwhelm ours."
"But that's not what's happening."
"Right. Because there's no... there... to send a signal."

"OK, fine. So what do we do?"
"Well, we need to figure out if we can replace every single transceiver that uses those frequencies, or if they can be altered to use different ones. But that's not the worst thing."

"What's the worst thing?"
"That whoever's doing this can do it to the rest of the EM spectrum."
"So what, we can't have FM radio anymore?
"No. It means we go blind."
"Our satellites go blind?"
"No, we can literally go blind. And more."

"Worse than going blind."
"Yeah, worse than going blind. It's all EM radiation."
"So this was... what, a demo? A warning?"
"Sure, call it a warning."
"That they can do..."

"That they can stop photons."
"What happens if you can stop photons?"
"There's no one around to ask or answer that question."

"There's got to be something we can do?"
"You don't understand, sir. *We* don't understand what is happening. We have literally no idea how this happens. It's all New Physics."
"This sounds like science fiction shit."
"Until about 18 minutes ago, it *was* science fiction shit."

"And you're sure it's a weapon? Not naturally occurring?"
"We're sure. Out of all the frequencies that could disappear, these two are incredibly specific. They're not fatal to our civilization. But they're incredibly noticeable."

"Don't... don't CERN have something they can do? Do we need to build that... that SSC thing?"
"Good memory. CERN and the Superconducting Super Collider wouldn't really help. Different kind of particle."
"You look like there's more bad news."
"You're not wrong."

"EM means the electromagnetic spectrum. The EM field is related to one of the four fundamental forces we know about. The others are gravity, and the strong and weak interactions."
"You mean they can control gravity?"

"Who knows? 19 minutes ago we had no idea you could disappear a specific frequency range."
"You said electromagnetic."
"Yeah. So... electricity? Magnetism?"
"You've got it."

"Hang on..."
"I'm hanging."
"Isn't that how... this has something to do with how we generate electricity?"
"You're right. Move a magnet around some wire."
"So... a turbine."
"Faraday's law."
"We make pretty much all our electricity with turbines..."
"Also right."

"They can turn off all our electricity generators?"
"Maybe? We just don't know."
"Because of the science fiction bullshit. The New Physics."
"Right, because of the new physics."
"Forget about wifi and bluetooth then, we're screwed without electricity. Can we do anything there?"

"There's two other ways to make electricity. You know both of them already."
"Just tell me?"
"We can use chemistry."
"Batteries?"
"Right, batteries. And the other one?"
"Solar panels?"
"Right. Solar panels. Plants. But..."
"But they turn light into electricity."
"You got it."

"Jesus fuck."
"Probably can't help us either, sir."

~ fin ~

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2/2 Other story threads I've written (ymmv etc):

https://twitter.com/hondanhon/status/1265678261998084096