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Blackout '65: Betrayed by technology

Nov. 9, 1965 at rush hour: Toronto and New York are plunged into darkness as a blackout strikes Ontario and the eastern United States. The result: traffic chaos, airport turmoil and tales of kindness and courtesy as 30 million people react to the largest power failure to that point in history.

Dozens of investigators are scurrying to find out what caused the massive blackout. But that doesn't impress Gordon Donaldson of the Toronto Telegram. Donaldson says the real problem is that engineers have created a huge system that they can no longer really understand.
With his tongue only partly planted in his cheek, Donaldson wonders whether we can really trust machines to tell us why technology failed. 
. Canadian author Bruce Allen Powe's 1995 novel Outage: A Journey into Electric City was based on his memories and experiences of "The Great Northeastern Blackout." A social commentary on how technology has infiltrated our lives, Powe's novel is told through an unnamed narrator who wanders through the streets of a futuristic Toronto where life itself has become a mere extension of the technological universe.
Medium: Radio
Program: Sunday Morning Magazine
Broadcast Date: Nov. 14, 1965
Host: Bruce Rogers
Duration: 1:47

Last updated: April 5, 2012

Page consulted on March 22, 2013

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