Dies the fire
An electrical storm over Nantucket island causes all electrical devices to cease function, and as some people band together, others are building armies for conquest.
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What Hacker News says
- The book series Dies The Fire also gives the topic an excellent treatment: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dies_the_Fire
- > Does anyone have any suggestions other than browsing Amazon or strolling through a Barnes and Noble?
As far as approaches: talk to people you know, understand their reading tastes, and get recommendations from them?
As far as specific reading suggestions for someone who I know nothing about other than that they like ASOIAF, maybe (though its very different) S.M. Stirling's novels of the Change (Dies the Fire and sequels.)
- In a similar vein is S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire series. While it requires some suspension of disbelief, especially in so much as being able to accept the premise that certain technologies suddenly cease working, it's an enjoyable 'what if' senario of a series.
- If you're interested in this highly unlikely scenario, I highly recommend the Dies the Fire books by S.M. Stirling. I actually got a good education in feudal economics and have a much better appreciation for the concept of food as wealth.
- I tend to think of the following as "states-in-waiting" -- centrally organized groups that can fill political vacuums.
- Several large religions (Catholics, Mormons, certain Baptist conventions)
- Mexican drug cartels
- Several multinational corporations (though internal bureaucracies of many in F500 are stagnate and wouldn't respond quickly to a power vacuum)
- Certain sub-divisions of governments (in the US: states, large municipalities, military bases, land managers)
- Certain volunteer organizations, like Civilian Air Patrol, Girl/Boy Scouts
These organizations have strong hierarchy, clear incentive constructs to align to their mission, and can typically respond quickly to external opportunities.
Books like Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling walk through sort of an uber-case of this kind of scenario from a scifi/fantasy perspective. And that another organization fills a void is not crazy -- we've seen it in history (Catholic -> Roman empire, post-American revolution, KKK and fraternal orders like Masons/Elks post-US civil war, several places in the Philippines, France, and others in response and following WWII occupation, and so forth).
Power is slippery. There is no divine right to it. People do well when it is held stably and respected for what it is. People do poorly when it is mismanaged, and will tend to support the strongest claim when there is a vacuum.
- If humans disappeared tomorrow, like with the book Aftermath: Population Zero or the Life After People show, then all our machines and civilization stop working and begin to fall apart soon after (Las Vegas might stay powered for 2 years before the Hoover Dam pipes clogged up and satellites longer).
If something changed the physics of our planet so that all modern technology stopped working, such as in the Dies the Fire book, then although most humans would starve, the survivors would start over with a medieval society (plus being able to use the scraps from modern world). That's the fundamental difference.
A world run by machines could exist after us and continue or build it's own civilization, which presumably Skynet would be able to do if it had won. The Matrix is more mixed, because the machines need humans to satisfy a lot of their power needs.
