8 May
2024
8 May
'24
12:58 p.m.
On May 8, 2024, at 7:56 AM, CAREY SCHUG via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
At a local linux meeting, the leader was disparaging any resurrection of old technology
Anybody else reminded of the science fiction story where ethereal life forms arrive from
a distant star system after receiving our first radio transmissions. life that eats radio
and electricity, starting with the frequencies of our first transmissions, but then
mutating(?) to all radio, then electricity even in wires, and wiping out all
communications, vehicles, etc. There is a desperate project to resurrect steam engines
(to build other steam engines) and breed horses. All those steam train museums turn out
to be what saves humanity. just now I realized..shouldn't they also consume all the
light too? But I guess they can't go beyond microwaves.
"The Waveries" by Fredric Brown, 1945. Never mind the bit about light; the
author missed the fact that Diesel engines don't need electricity, and also the fact
that thunder can't happen without lightning.
paul