[papertyger]

You could throw all of the computer boards in the ocean tomorrow and we would not revert to a preindustrial society. Sorry, but my hysteria threshold is too high to buy into your doomsday scenario.

Apparently the Heritage Foundation and a blue ribbon commission that had the unfortunate luck to publish their finding on the same day as the 911 commission disagree with you.

[Renfield]

All of our cars are governed by computer chips now. What will happen if the cars and trucks won’t run?

[SampleMan]

A blue ribbon commission? Gosh those are always right. Why don't we forgo a government and just get more blue ribbon commissions?

Seriously though, I don't disagree with the commission. But they don't say that a single EMP is going to destroy Western Civilization. They say that it would "impair" or "degrade" our electronics over maybe 1/4 (if very high) to all of the Continental U.S. (if extremely high) depending on the altitude and sophistication of the bomb. This does not equate to frying every electronic device in the USA, let alone the Western World.

I've never said it wouldn't do damage. One EMP just wouldn't do sufficient damage to turn us into Lord of the Flys.