When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth

What Hacker News says

1. eftepedeFeb 2025
   When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth
   thread
2. redundantlyFeb 2023
   You might find the short story 'When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth' interesting.

   https://craphound.com/overclocked/Cory_Doctorow_-_Overclocke...

   thread
3. angersockDec 2016
   So, I'd suggest a few different books on that topic--Farnham's Freehold not being one of them.

   Lucifer's Hammer by Niven and Pournelle goes into a bit of the politics and aftermath of a comet striking the Earth. It talks about survival, civil defense, and a few other things that would be spoilers to mention. That said, it has some points that are weirdly racist when viewed decades after publication--if you can look past those, though, it's a solid read.

   One Second After by William Forstchen talks about the aftermath of an EMP first-strike on the US. Perhaps the one of the more interesting things is that he does specifically pay attention to both the food and medicine logistics--specifically, what happens when we lack ability to run refrigerators and move around grain. It's a bit cheerful in the end, but a good read.

   Warday by Strieber and Kunetka takes place 5 years after a "limited" nuclear exchange with the USSR. The premise of the novel is that a pair of researchers are traveling through the US and interviewing folks, reading documents, and generally piecing together both the initial conflict as well as the efforts to survive and recover. It's a really good bit of speculative fiction, but is pretty depressing.

   ~

   One of the biggest things that makes nuclear war difficult to imagine today is that we have the Internet and cell phones, things which at once are utterly integral to most of the non-rural folks and which are completely vulnerable to any sort of honest nuclear strike. The lack of books, CB radios, and basic practical knowhow and repairable goods brought by the rise of technology and international trade might well yield a situation where a theoretical 2020s United States would have a more difficult time recovering than a 1980s US.

   At least as far as the 'net stuff goes, the short story "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" by Doctorow is maybe one of the only ones that treats the tech angle seriously in a modern light.

   Show morethread
4. adrianNJun 2016
   Relevant short story: "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth"

   http://craphound.com/overclocked/Cory_Doctorow_-_Overclocked...

   thread
5. digi_owlFeb 2015
   Makes me think of Doctorow's When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth.

   http://craphound.com/overclocked/2014/01/14/when-sysadmins-r...

   thread
6. AnimatsNov 2014
   From their manifesto: Dear Init-Freedom lovers, The Veteran Unix Admin collective salutes you. Does this group expect to be taken seriously? Read Cory Doctorow's "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" and get over it.
   thread