- #1
H2Bro
- 166
- 4
Hello,
I'm planning on writing a short story, pretty short, maybe 5 - 10 pages with minimal dialogue and just a few characters. Really its a pilot project to outline the details and thoughts needed for a bigger project that may or may take place down the road.
Generally, the idea is this.
Capitalist societies collapse under resource strain. National militaries enter a desperate struggle for clean water, food, and gas / oil energy resources. Basic supply infrastructure mostly shuts down as energy resources are rediverted by governments for military activities, and destroy most of each others remaining infrastructure. city populations either starve or re-settle the countryside. States enter marshal law but even the state's appropriated resources dwindle and anarchy sets in. Ultimately, there are to many people for the food that can be produced without large scale mechanization of productions and distribution, and there are mass die-offs even in developed places like north america and Europe.
There is a predatory period where law enforcement agencies either run out of resources and disband or become looters and protection rackets. Ultimately they become more predatory to the point of outright looting and killing, essentially marauding warlords and gangs that further destroy re-settled and agricultural communities which otherwise might have survived. Predator groups decimate settled populations and eventually each other - think mercenaries in Germany in 30 years war.
The ultra rich and wealthy basically exit the scene to heavily fortified fortresses and underground bunkers. Telecommunications signals reveal the location of most of these and they are looted, raided, destroyed by aforementioned former military predator groups. The general anarchy and chaos lasts say 50 years before new population equilibria are established, but it could essentially be mostly peasant agriculture surrounded by the remains of technical civilization - think italian peasants living in thatch huts next to imperial roman remains.
So, this is the backdrop for the real interesting part of the story, in my mind, which is this: what packages need to be set in place to establish just a few, say half a dozen, self sustaining communities in remote, inaccessible locations (Peruvian highlands, Central asian steppes, Rockies, etc) with the requisite tools to re-establish the slightest toehold of technical civilization after the period of chaos dies down and they can try to re-emerge on a larger scale.
My thoughts are along these lines:
- small nuclear reactor
- several industrial 3d printers with some heavy supplies of graphite, silicon, gold, etc, for material
- hardened hard drives storing scientific, technical, engineering and medical knowledge
- genome sequencing bank, stem cell bank, seed bank, and if possible, frozen viable fertilized animal embryos
- small population of perhaps 200 - 300 people across a range of specialties and disciplines. Less astrophysicists, bankers, etc, more midwives, farmers, and repairmen.
- small supply of weapons for defense and hunting
- potentially, very minimal satellite network for surveillance
The inspiration for the idea comes from Asimov's Foundation series. I thought it would be neat applying that to Earth with modern tech. One thing I am considering is having the survival colonies: not use wirelessly transmitting technology for detection reasons; not being mutually aware of each other; and potentially having a period of mandatory isolation, i.e. 20 or 30 years.
I'm looking for suggestions on what other devices, technologies, etc, would be essential for not necessarily maintaining a technical society, but to keep open the possibility of reviving it down the road. Interested to hear your comments or suggestions.
Additionally, if you folks have some materials, resources, NASA studies, white papers etc, detailing survival options for something like nuclear holocaust, or maybe what to take for a space colony, or personal survival hideouts, I appreciate links and references to help me fill out my ideas.
I'm planning on writing a short story, pretty short, maybe 5 - 10 pages with minimal dialogue and just a few characters. Really its a pilot project to outline the details and thoughts needed for a bigger project that may or may take place down the road.
Generally, the idea is this.
Capitalist societies collapse under resource strain. National militaries enter a desperate struggle for clean water, food, and gas / oil energy resources. Basic supply infrastructure mostly shuts down as energy resources are rediverted by governments for military activities, and destroy most of each others remaining infrastructure. city populations either starve or re-settle the countryside. States enter marshal law but even the state's appropriated resources dwindle and anarchy sets in. Ultimately, there are to many people for the food that can be produced without large scale mechanization of productions and distribution, and there are mass die-offs even in developed places like north america and Europe.
There is a predatory period where law enforcement agencies either run out of resources and disband or become looters and protection rackets. Ultimately they become more predatory to the point of outright looting and killing, essentially marauding warlords and gangs that further destroy re-settled and agricultural communities which otherwise might have survived. Predator groups decimate settled populations and eventually each other - think mercenaries in Germany in 30 years war.
The ultra rich and wealthy basically exit the scene to heavily fortified fortresses and underground bunkers. Telecommunications signals reveal the location of most of these and they are looted, raided, destroyed by aforementioned former military predator groups. The general anarchy and chaos lasts say 50 years before new population equilibria are established, but it could essentially be mostly peasant agriculture surrounded by the remains of technical civilization - think italian peasants living in thatch huts next to imperial roman remains.
So, this is the backdrop for the real interesting part of the story, in my mind, which is this: what packages need to be set in place to establish just a few, say half a dozen, self sustaining communities in remote, inaccessible locations (Peruvian highlands, Central asian steppes, Rockies, etc) with the requisite tools to re-establish the slightest toehold of technical civilization after the period of chaos dies down and they can try to re-emerge on a larger scale.
My thoughts are along these lines:
- small nuclear reactor
- several industrial 3d printers with some heavy supplies of graphite, silicon, gold, etc, for material
- hardened hard drives storing scientific, technical, engineering and medical knowledge
- genome sequencing bank, stem cell bank, seed bank, and if possible, frozen viable fertilized animal embryos
- small population of perhaps 200 - 300 people across a range of specialties and disciplines. Less astrophysicists, bankers, etc, more midwives, farmers, and repairmen.
- small supply of weapons for defense and hunting
- potentially, very minimal satellite network for surveillance
The inspiration for the idea comes from Asimov's Foundation series. I thought it would be neat applying that to Earth with modern tech. One thing I am considering is having the survival colonies: not use wirelessly transmitting technology for detection reasons; not being mutually aware of each other; and potentially having a period of mandatory isolation, i.e. 20 or 30 years.
I'm looking for suggestions on what other devices, technologies, etc, would be essential for not necessarily maintaining a technical society, but to keep open the possibility of reviving it down the road. Interested to hear your comments or suggestions.
Additionally, if you folks have some materials, resources, NASA studies, white papers etc, detailing survival options for something like nuclear holocaust, or maybe what to take for a space colony, or personal survival hideouts, I appreciate links and references to help me fill out my ideas.