Gremlins in the wires

I am continually amazed by how much we take for granted, how much stuff in this society just works.
As an example, we changed out our wireless router the other day. It worked fine for a few days, then the connection just died. No reason, just couldn't connect. Much hairpulling and badwordsaying. Then, this morning, I plugged everything back in, turned it on, and voila, back in business. (Thus this blog entry, and others that've been piling up.)

But let us remember how few years ago (say, 1983, and thus pre-Macintosh) none of this was possible.
Not for love nor money.
No internet, no cell phones, no movies-on-demand, no text messaging.
Amazing we were able to survive at all, in those Dark Ages...

Yet how many other systems in this society (traffic lights, food delivery, gas distribution, sewerage), that we totally depend upon, are just as invisible and mysterious?
That's why the bird flu is so scary.
If everyone takes the government's advice and stays home to eat the tuna under the bed (almost as good advice as the plastic and duct tape for the anthrax scare), who's going to keep the power plants (let alone the sewerage plants) running, the gas trucks rolling, the milk and cereal deliveries made?
We could be in serious trouble...

(Of course, after fifty percent of the population dies off, think of the better house and car you'll be able to afford...)