Technology = Death?
I just finished a book named One Second After by William Fortschen. It made me think. A lot.
The novel’s plot sees the United States’ airspace attacked with nuclear bombs. While a nuclear strike to land would cause obvious destruction, the effects of a strike above the country would be, at first, minimal. And that’s what happens in the novel. When the electricity went out, the protagonist and his family thought it to be just another power failure. But then cell phones and landlines didn’t work. And then most new cars simply shut off mid-drive. Eventually the reader learns that the nuclear strike in airspace, if high enough, can demolish society as we know it, thanks to something called an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) triggered by the blast. As the turmoil lasts for months, self-preservation subverts the common good. And with no technology — increasingly our life-blood — and with no alternative infrastructure prepared for us to revert back to a 19th Century lifestyle, society begins to fall apart.
I am not usually a big fan of anything approaching the fantasy genre. But what was so striking to me was how possible this situation could be. As soon as I finished the book, I thought about how vulnerable we are with our reliance on technology and our increased ignorance of “old-time” skills, like canning and hand-sewing for instance. Such a strike in reality would be the ultimate jujitsu move, using our biggest strength to slay us. Interesting and scary all at the same time.
