Could a Solar Flare Disrupt the Transhumanist Movement?

In 2012, Wired declared there to be a 1 in 8 chance of a catastrophic solar megastorm by 2020. We dodged that bullet, but the threat hasn’t gone away. So long as we orbit a sun, it won’t ever go away.

A large solar flare would be devastating to our modern way of life. According to Wired, such an event “could potentially cause trillions of dollars’ worth of damage and take up to a decade to recover from.” Beyond the economic impacts, a large solar flare would have social and political repercussions that aren’t so easily quantifiable. The transhumanist movement, in particular, may face sizeable disruptions to its core goals.

Solar weather is analogous to regular weather in that there are seasons and cycles. Most windstorms are harmless to human life, but occasionally the atmospheric pressures serve up a category five hurricane. Unlike hurricanes, however, massive solar storms are relatively uncommon. The last significant solar storm, known as the Carrington Event, occurred in 1859. The event was marked by auroras appearing all over the globe. It also disrupted electrical systems and caused telegraphs stations to catch fire.

That was over 160 years ago. If a solar flare of equivalent size were to strike today, the impacts would be much more severe. Due to the high-energy particles and coronal mass…