The Impair of Solar Flares

Halliday sat silent, his face white with anger.

“I’m sorry, John. After that the satellite signal fails for six minutes,” Palmer explained sadly, fraught by bearing the unfortunate news, “The entire eastern seaboard has been experiencing extreme levels of solar flare activity.”

His mind rewound the images he had seen. Munro being grabbed violently from behind, cast into the van like baggage. Silas falling to the ground out of reach of his abductor. The silver van running down a passer-by as it tried to escape. These men weren’t professionals. They reacted like scared animals when cornered. Fight or flight. They could be capable of anything.

Munro’s father reacts to the digital images recorded by satellite of his daughter, Munro, being abducted. Just after the escape vehicles are switched, the satellite signal fails and any hope of tracking the destination of the second vehicle is gone. As OurGlass is set in the year 2052, the Earth is now experiencing extreme levels of this activity and it’s causing higher frequencies of satellite interference.

Created from sun spots that follow an 11 year cycle, a solar flare is the result of an explosion of energy and magnetic force hurled out from our sun. Under certain conditions, the Earth is bombarded by X-rays, gamma rays, and magnetic disturbance keeping our ionosphere in a constant state of defense. While solar flares are not dangerous to humans as of yet (our ionosphere does its best to deflect these harmful rays), they are capable of disrupting communications equipment high above Earth. Some believe orbiting satellites are even having their paths disrupted by these powerful occurrences.

There is on-going research into the long-term effects solar flares inflict upon Earth and its many life forms, but more data is required to draw any certain conclusions. As the Sun ages alongside the entire solar system, it’s a guarantee we will witness more changes in its behaviour that could negatively affect life on Earth in the centuries ahead.

To Ping, or Not To Ping

“Once I have the Sphere in my hands, your daughter will be returned,” Khai tells Munro’s father, John Halliday, stating his sole demand. Halliday is baffled by the request and the voice’s admission that Silas knows what needs to be delivered. Halliday goes to Silas’ room to learn more and wakes him as the police attempt to trace the location of the call.

In 2010, there exists a technology capable of determining the location of a mobile/cellular phone any place in the world. The process is called “pinging” and it involves the mathematical triangulation of the transmission tower used (mobile phone tracking is another term for this) In the field of police work, it can be a valuable tool to connect the criminal to the crime. In the early beginnings of this technology, companies provided a service to the general public looking for individuals. In 2007, due to privacy concerns, legislation was introduced making it a felony to own or possess phone records in the US.

Several years ago the technology took anywhere from 7-10 minutes to pin-point the location of a cell phone. As more and more communication satellites roam the Earth’s stratosphere, by 2052 this technology will have likely matured to a point where it will take mere seconds to do just the same.

As long as your on the right side of the law, most of us should have nothing to worry about. One day it could even save your life.

“May I have your coin-card please?”

Tragedy strikes when Munro is abducted by Khai’s men after he suspects the children have discovered the wood box containing the Earth Sphere. Silas had just exited a convenience store with a pair of drinks for he and his sister and avoided being taken due to a clumsy grab by the abductors. Silas is left lying on the sidewalk, stunned, as people around him gather to help and to chase down the silver van with Munro inside.

Traditional currency in today’s world is continuously being redesigned to save on the cost of production and simplicity of POU (point of use) transactions. The first debit card was issued by Seattle’s First National Bank in 1978 to preferred customers, marking the beginning of a revolution in consumer purchasing. In 2009, there was an estimated 37 million debit cards in use in Canada; for the same year, worldwide credit, debit, and prepaid transactions (gift cards), reached a staggering 99 billion.

In OurGlass, I’ve proposed an idea that would eliminate paper and coin currency that make up the bulk of  small transactions. It’s called the coin-card  and in 2052, it’s a nod to a bygone era. It would be flexible with a grey and black display and pre-loaded to a maximum of $50 capable of showing the card’s current value. The target user would be children under 16, and parents could transfer money to it through their bank account using a home computer with a built in receptacle. A user would pass the coin-card to a cashier and a debit device would automatically subtract the amount owing from the card. A neat aspect about the card is that amounts are easily transferred from one card to another by wiping them together, just in case you’re a little short when you’re buying that candy bar and soda.

With the coin-card, metals that are used to produce the world’s coins could be put to better use. It would likely save on the bottoms of pants pockets as well. As many of us know, the practice of home sewing is a dying art, likely to disappear altogether by 2052.