« Previous Issue | Main | Next Issue »

January 30, 2007

1.30.07

Today, all tech above the level of fire and wheel stop working...

• Comments (2)     Bookmark: del.icio.us • Digg • reddit

David: Square One

Later, people would compare it to an electromagnetic pulse, on a more basic level. But that’s nonsense, right? An EMP can’t make gunpowder and gasoline stop burning. It can’t stop people’s doors from locking or turn every known pharmaceutical inert. One could kill the power company, sure, but it wouldn’t drain all the batteries.

Some say it was God unmaking the world. Some say it was an attack by aliens. Some say the terrorists finally sent us all back to the Stone Age. Frankly, all I cared about was trying to bash open a can of food with my iPod.

• Comments (2)     Bookmark: del.icio.us • Digg • reddit

Jim: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

“Whatcha got there, Mog?”

“Oh, hey, Torg! Check it out! I call it a ‘bow and arrow’. I’ll use it for hunting.”

“Sounds kinda nifty! How’s it work?”

“You put the arrow – that’s this long, pointy stick – onto the bow string. Then you pull back like this and let go.”

“Are the bow and arrow supposed to fall onto the ground like that?”

“That’s weird. It worked yesterday.”

“Are you sure you’re doing it right?”

“I’m pretty sure. It’s hard to remember.”

“Maybe it just doesn’t work anymore. Come on! Let’s go get some grubs and berries.”

“Okay. Sounds good!”

Read more from Jim's .

• Comments (5)     Bookmark: del.icio.us • Digg • reddit

Ted: Dig, Root, or Die

Stu and Nance had guessed correctly and headed for the foothills. They had cows, goats, seeds and seedlings, plenty of water, farm tools, even a spinning wheel.

They knew apocalypse was coming, just not that it would make all their tools useless. The first winter almost killed them.

In the spring, they re-invented farming with sticks and manure as their only tools. The sheep they saved over winter saved them in return.

When refugees came, starving, and tried to steal, Stu killed some with a deadfall trap of burning SUV tires. The survivors pulled away the dead and ate them.

• Comments (3)     Bookmark: del.icio.us • Digg • reddit

Jeff R.:General Strike

The wheel is a god-damn scab.

There's no excuse for it. It took too long to get organized, and every time we'd get close, there'd be some new kind of screw or pulley-rig or transistor joining the workforce, and so we'd have to keep recruiting and never take any direct action.

And believe me, action was needed. You seen the hours? The pay? The retirement plan?

Anyhow, Fire, we can undestand. Fire's just a glorified ameteur; does it more for fun than anything else. But the wheel?

We'll see how well he rolls across the picket line after we're through.

• Comments (2)     Bookmark: del.icio.us • Digg • reddit