I think most of us are highly dependent on our electronic and electrical gadgets, and it's astonishing how many of the "simplest" devices now have chips in them to control them. Modern Stronghold has an chilling piece about what the consequences could be if all those chips were taken out, not by an EMP, but a virus. The virus he's referring to in his piece is stuxnet, and it's designed to be able to hijack the code in the device it has infiltrated, and customized to sabotage or steal code and/or data.
Imagine then, if you will, a world where electricity was no longer readily available because a virus targetted the control systems at all power plants using certain PLC's, or where driving a car that contains a computer is taking your life in your hands because viral code had been introduced during the manufacturing process. Maybe your air conditioner develops the habit of dropping temperatures to the freezing point and you live in someplace where it can get brutally hot. Using air conditioning becomes an exercise in extremes, assuming you have electricity to start with. Sounds like the beginnings of a great sci-fi novel.
It's a weird world we live in. Think I'll jump in my computer-controlled car and go to work, where I sit in front of a computer, in a building where access is controlled by a computer...
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