Bombardment from space has destroyed the advanced technology that had sustained a leisured global civilization and has instantly reduced Terrestrials to savagery:
"Avi's feet were bleeding. Her shoes had finally given out, and rocks and twigs tore at her feet. The snow was dappled with blood.
"Weariness clawed at her, she couldn't keep going - but she had to, she was afraid to stop in the wilderness." (p. 99)
"...the machines were dead, there was only cold and gloom..." (ibid.)
Could that be us soon? Ecological, economic, military, cybernetic or cosmic forces could stop our machines. Will a near-future sf dystopia be actualized in our lifetimes?
(By "cosmic forces," I have in mind a comet on a collision course as long as we have no adequate laser defense system.)
5 comments:
Unlikely. We -make- the machines, and do so in globally distributed networks.
We do need a defense system against asteroid collisions -- the sort that destroyed the dinosaurs.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
First comment: Because too much of our machinery and people capable of making use of them would survive even such a global catastrophe?
Second comment: Absolutely! We shouldn't depend on blind luck.
Ad astra! Sean
One thing that makes 'the machine(s) stop(s)' plausible is that so many of them run on a finite supply of fossil fuels. If we want them to keep running we need to shift to other energy supplies. I think mostly nuclear.
Kaor, Anonymous!
Absolutely! There are better uses for oil than just burning it.
We should have been getting most of our electricity via nuclear long ago!
Ad astra! Sean
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