X-Events: The Collapse of Everything Book

Author's Note vii

Preamble: Putting the "X" into x-Events 1

Part I Why Normal Isn't So "Normal" Anymore 17

Part II Getting Down to Cases 59

X-Event 1 Digital Darkness 68

A Long-Term, Widespread Failure of the Internet

X-Event 2 When do we Eat? 92

Breakdown of the Global Food-Supply System

X-Event 3 The Day the Electronics died 109

A Continent-Wide Electromagnetic Pulse Destroys All Electronics

X-Event 4 A New world Disorder 122

The Collapse of Globalization

X-Event 5 Death by Physics 144

Destruction of the Earth Through the Creation of Exotic Particles

X-Event 6 Blown Away 161

Destabilization of the Nuclear Landscape

X-Event 7 Running on Empty 180

Drying Up of World Oil Supplies

X-Event 8 I'M Sick of It 195

A Global Pandemic

X-Event 9 Dark and Dry 212

Failure of the Electric Power Grid and Clean Water Supply

X-Event 10 Technology Run Amok 233

Intelligent Robots Overthrow Humanity

X-Event 11 The Great Unwinding 251

Global Deflation and the Collapse of World Financial Markets

Part III X-Events Redux 271

Notes and References 303

Index 318